


Breath Me

by Stealth_star



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adult Rin (InuYasha), Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, BAMF Higurashi Kagome, Eventual Smut, Explicit Language, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Murder, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Powerful Higurashi Kagome, Protective InuYasha (InuYasha), Secret Organizations, Shadow Hunters Feel, Slow Burn, Soulmates, True Mates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:28:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 30,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25450897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stealth_star/pseuds/Stealth_star
Summary: At the age of 23 Kagome Higurashi is a hard working nursing Student trying to graduate at the top of her class while balancing her duties at her family shrine and trying to have a normal life. But what happens when there is a long string of disappearances and her life suddenly gets thrust into a world that she had always believed were just her old grandfathers ramblings.***Re-worked from original***
Relationships: Ayame/Kouga (InuYasha), Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha, InuYasha/Kikyou (InuYasha), Miroku/Sango (InuYasha), Rin/Sesshoumaru (InuYasha)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 54





	1. A chance encounter.

The rain had just started to lightly come down as he made his way up the quiet street. Looking around he pulled the hood a little farther over his head the quickly shoved his hands back into his hoodie pocket. He could hear every drop as it hit the ground and the people scurrying about to get inside before the down pour really started. 

Glancing around he noticed the all the nicely kept homes though not one of the most prestigious neighborhoods there was a definite pride in ownership around here. This area of town was quiet for the most part, the majority of the area was taken up by a large forest that was part of the nearby shrine a few blocks back, He went around there though for obvious reasons. A shrine definitely wouldn’t like a visit from a yokai or hanyou. Inuyasha knew there was a storm coming before he went out but he had to get away for a while. There was too much happening and too much noise back at Command. He would have taken his car but Miroku decided to use it as a barricade on the last mission and it didn’t come out unscathed. 

He released a low growl at that thought without noticing the women and her son walking a few feet ahead. He made eye contact with the women and as soon as she they locked eyes, she pulled her son closer and hurried past. 

“Keh, some things will never change” he thought slightly shaking his head and pulling his hood even tighter against his head making the fabric pull, he knew it wouldn’t go any further but it made him slightly feel better, almost like he was hidden. He also knew he shouldn’t have gone out without his concealment charm, humans tended to freak out a little when actually seeing something that wasn’t supposed to exist unless it was in the movies or books. 

He kept his head down for the most part, occasionally looking up. He didn’t need to look around to know where he was going. Even with the light spring rain he could tell where he was from the smells around him. His mind began to wandered back to the latest case the Collective had put in their laps. They had been dealing with it over the past few weeks. Human and yokai disappearances. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme nor reason to who was going missing, no commonality between any of them. The local authorities thinking they were dealing with a serial kidnapper and wouldn’t mention anything about murders because as of yet, no bodies have been found. 

Scrubbing his hand over his face quickly to remove any droplets of water that has manage to run down his skin and replacing it back in the pocket he sighed. It was definitely some sort of yokai but whenever they had arrived at a scene there was no trace of aura or scent, nothing to even give a hint of who was behind this. Only a faint scent of burial soil ever lingered in the area around the last known places of the victims. 

Humans for decades have believed that they walked this earth alone, not knowing of the existence of yokai. Yokai choosing to go into hiding after a great war between a selecet group of spiritual useres and all of yokai. Many were lost and the yokai lines depleted as did the reiki users lines. Humans began to breed with whomever they choose and the lines were watered down to next to nothing. The only strong spiritual users left that he knew were the few elders in the collective, Miroku, Kikyo and Kaede. Anyone with true spiritual powers these days were extremely rare as were a pure blooded yokai. Since the decision to end the fighting and make it look as though the yokai had just disappeared or dyed off it has been peaceful and Yokai choose to stay out of human affairs for the most part. But that’s where Inuyasha and his team came in. They dealt with any rouge yokai incident in the hopes of keeping it out of the public eye and to keep the peace. “Get in, get out, don’t make a mess” as Songo would say, this approach meant less paper work to fill in when they finished and no headaches. Given what was happening with these disappearances though the media was crying out answers that no one could give. 

He continued to walk looking up at the sky and taking a deep breath in, 

“storm’s not going away anytime soon...” 

Lowering his gaze, he continued to walk. 

*** 

“Gahhhhhh why did it have to rain?!” Kagome seethed, she knew she should have left earlier, but finishing up the last part of her assignment took precedence. She really didn’t want to be doing it after dinner with her family and perhaps she was being a little over dramatic, it really wasn’t raining that hard. When she had left it was only light, but not it was coming down hard enough that the water was starting to pool on the sidewalks and streets. 

Maybe she shouldn’t have walked. As nice of an idea it was to stretch her legs, she could have jumped on her bike and gotten there a lot faster. Her Apartment wasn’t too far from her family's shrine having moved out after her first year of University. She needed a place of her own, somewhere she could concentrate and not have listen to Soutas constant video game playing or Gramps telling yet another long-winded story about some magical item that she highly doubted ever even existed! She loved to let Gramps tell his stories and tried to indulge him the best she could, but she could only listen to the same stories about some artifact or the existence of fairytale creatures so many times before it really got old. 

She had found the perfect place not far from the shrine and only a short drive to her university's campus. It wasn’t much, but it was hers. Being So close allowed her to still make it for family dinners on occasion, as well as help with shrine duties and classes on weekends. Her studies would take up a lot of her time, but she was determined to be the best darn Nurse she could be. Helping people had always brought her so much joy, healing and mending even more so. Today, she was wishing her little apartment was a lot closer though. Sitting at dinner in soaking wet clothing didn’t really sound appealing, crinkling her nose at that thought. 

“I’m sure mama would have something I could put on...” she said to herself. 

Picking up her pace a little she brushed a piece of her hair behind her ear to stop it from sticking, put her head down to try and keep some of the rain off her face and tried to pull the hair off her neck, not paying much attention to what was around her. She had made this trip so many times before she bet she could probably do it with her eyes closed. The rain was picking up slightly and her clothes were starting to get even more wet and were now sticking to her skin. She focused her gaze down and pulled the cotton fabric away from her chest listening to the slight suction sound it made and she crinkled her nose again... 

“great!” she thought again “justttttt great” 

With all her attention on her shirt she and not what was in front or her she ran into something hard, completely caught over guard and lost her balance. 

“what the...” she hissed 

“Oi, what the hell!” 

Kagome staggered back but a pair of strong hand steadied her before she fell back onto the ground. Embarrassment filled her and she bowed her head low. 

“Oh my god, I am so sorry I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and I didn’t see you! I didn’t hurt you or anything did I?” Kagome rambled on keeping her eyes low. Taking in the person that was in front of her. He stood there, his black laced up boots were saturated with water, black cargo pants that were slick to his skin and a dark red hoodie which she was sure wasn’t normally that dark in colour if it wasn’t soaked. 

“Keh! As if you could actually hurt me!” the man scoffed releasing her after he was sure she was steady and crossing his arms in front of his chest. The comment caused her eyes to snap up to his face, and they locked eyes. Kagome couldn’t look away. His eyes were a warm liquid amber colour that she had never seen before. She watched him closely, taking in his features, his smooth skin, strong jaw and silver hair peeking out from his hood. Besides his scowling face he was extremely handsome, however he almost looked uncomfortable being around her and being under her assessing eyes. 

“Well, I am still sorry for running into you!” she mumbled breaking eye contact, feeling him still watching she tried but failed at making herself look taller. 

“Well next time watch where the fuck you’re going wench!” his voice was way harsher than Kagome thought was necessary. 

“Well it’s not like I did it on purpose! There is no need to be so rude!” straightening herself out defiantly “And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t call me a wench, honestly why would you call someone that?!” 

His eyes flashed with that comment but Kagome stood her ground, she wasn’t about to let this guy think he can't talk to her however the hell he wanted, she watched his face trying to get a read on what he was going to do. How this guy was getting a rise out of her? Her heart was starting to hammer in her chest, she could feel something pulling and brushing against her, going much deeper than the surface of her skin. The man just glared at her, taking in her stance, then he just smirked revealing a sharp, brilliantly white canine tooth and shook his head. 

The girl took a step back at the sight and Inuyasha quickly remembered once again he was not wearing his concealment charm. She could see him, the real him. He watched her as she studied the features of his face and he drew in a few breaths through his nose. ‘she ain’t scared of me’ he thought to himself though in utter disbelief. The woman in front of him was definitely confused but not scared. 

Inuyasha decided if she was going to size him up, he would do the same. Her black hair was slick to her face, neck and back as rain drops trace the smoothness of her skin. The blue blouse she was wearing clung to her skin displaying every curve of her body to him and the skirt that he was sure was supposed to be flowy did the same thing. She was definitely good looking for a human, definitely put time in to her body too judging by how the clothes she was wearing were sticking to her. Her blue eyes felt like they were piercing right into his very being, strong, determined and full of will. Taking in a slow deep breath through his nose her scent had him questioning who exactly she was. It confused him. Even with the rain coming down her scent was so strong, like cherry blossoms and lilies. 

Now he was the confused one, the fact that there was not one bit of fear coming off of her. She just stood there trying to match his glare, standing her ground, attempting to be intimidating even though he was much taller than she was. She was just this little slip of a girl, it almost made him laugh. Most humans would cower in fear the second they caught a glimpse of his more yokai features. Yet here she was trying to look intimidating to him and he couldn’t help the smirk that played across his features. He could hear her heart rate pick up with that and her scent just grew. 

“I’ll call ya what I want, bitch” he drew out the last word, only wanting to get more of a rise out of the female before him, like he was testing the waters and he was very pleased with her reaction looking like a fish out of water trying to figure out what to say to him. 

“What did you just call me?! I have a name you know! And it is definitely not that!!” Kagome defended not really knowing what to say to him. 

“Like I give a rats ass what your name is!” Inuyasha played off looking down at his feet before shoving his hands into his hoodie pocket. 

“Well to bad! It’s Kagome, say it with me KA-GO-ME! You can't just go around calling people by foul names, especially people you don’t even know, who Definity don’t deserve it!” she huffed pointing a finger at him and getting more irritated by the stranger. She completely forgot that it was raining and that she had somewhere to be. She felt she needed to give this guy a piece of her mind. Honestly, how dare he treat someone like that! 

“Keh!” Inuyasha simply turn his nose up at her “Whatever wench, don’t you have something better to do then lecture complete strangers in the rain?” 

“Actually, I do! I am going to have dinner with my family, who are nice, unlike yourself!” placing her hands on her hips she tried to keep calm, she didn’t know why she felt the need to tell him that rather than where he could take his comments and stick them! Usually, she could defend herself very well but something about this guy way completely throwing her off and that was about as witty as she was going to get. 

“Better hurry off then, before that shirt of your gets anymore soaked, it's not leaving much to the imagination” he purred leaning towards her and bringing his intense gaze back to hers. Why he was even bothering still talking to this woman he didn’t know. Really, he should have just moved on as soon as he told her to watch where she was going like he always did when others were involved, but here he was still talking to her, still trying to get her more frazzled than she already was... Still trying to take in more of her scent. Now that she was almost in her personal space her scent was even stronger. 

“what the hells” he thought. 

“Ass!” Kagome huffed as she flung her arms across her body. She didn’t back down though still glaring at him and trying to make it look like his comment did nothing to her. Not letting him know that him being closer to her was doing weird things and her heart was now hammering in her chest. 

Inuyasha looked the women up and down once more, soaking wet but still not backing down. He caught a slight shiver and noticed that the temperature had dropped a bit and he looked up to the sky. 

“storms about to get worse...” he muttered more to himself really.

“Better get your weak ass to wherever you’re going, storms about to get worse” he said flatly. Why he even cared to tell her that, who knows, he certainly didn’t, but something in him wanted her to get where she was heading before it really came down. 

“Not like you actually care I’m sure!” Kagome challenged puffing up her chest a bit, she turned her nose up and away from him. 

“You’re right, I don’t bitch! I'm just sick of standing here listening to you yap!” Inuyasha moved to push past her shaking his head. 

“It’s Kagome! Not Bitch!” She declared snapping her face toward him again, her temper starting to flare a bit more. 

“Keh” and he continued to walk leaving her standing there. He squared his shoulders before taking a quick glance over to see if she was still standing there. She was. Watching him walk away with her arms still across her chest, her face looked shocked that he would just up and leave like that causing him to grin and giving her two fingered salute with his left hand before looking back in the direction he was heading. 

“What on earth just happened?” she questioned herself before she shivered again, continuing to watch the man walk away until he rounded the corner. Rubbing her hands up and down her arms to try and get some warmth, the strange feeling of pulling and brushing against her skin disappearing just as the man had. Looking towards her family home she sighed, quickly looked again in the direction he had gone. 

“As if he would come back” she thought to herself 

She had never seen him around here before, hopefully he was not new to the neighborhood; she didn’t want to ever run into that jerk again! Right? His golden amber eyes flashed in her mind and she blinked quickly to try and clear it as fast as possible. Then his smirk, another shiver. Shaking her head, she huffed and started to walk quickly to the shrine, the storm actually was starting to pick up. 

“Stupid jerk, like he would know anything, honestly who talks to people like that? I’ll be happy if I never see him again!” she glanced over her shoulder one more time when she reached the bottom of the shrine stairs before she fully turned her whole body to look in the direction he travelled. 

“Never see him again...” echoed in her mind 

Turning back to the stairs she ran up them as quickly as she could and headed towards the family home that stood towards the back of the shrine courtyard. By the time she reached the door the rain had increased in intensity and she was glad she had made it inside. 

“ok, maybe he did know something...” she grumbled 

“Kagome! You are soaked! You poor thing, come let's get you some dry clothes and get you warmed up. You must be freezing!” 

“I’m fine Mama, it's not like I;ll melt if I get wet! But some dry clothes sound awesome. These wet ones...” 

“leave nothing to the imagination” his voice rang through her mind 

“are very clingy.” she finished in a quiet tone picking at the articles of clothing and looking down at them distracted. 

“Is everything alright dear?” her mother asked, a touch of concern in her voice. 

“Hmmm? Oh, I’m fine Mama, just ran into some jerk on the way here, I told him where to go!” she laughed. 

Her mother shook her head at that comment. Knowing that if her husband were still around, he would be egging her on and telling her good job standing up for herself. He always wanted Kagome to be able to take care of herself and he made sure that she could definitely defend herself. Shaking her head, they made their way further inside the home and Kagome left to head to the bathroom to take off her wet clothes. 

“I’m sure you have some of your own clothes here somewhere, I’ll take a look and bring them up to you” her mother said before disappearing in to the hallway that led to the bedrooms. 

“Thanks Mama” Kagome called after her mother and closed the door to the bathroom. Looking at herself in the mirror the vision of amber eye and silver hair flashed again she lightly slapped her hands on her cheeks again trying to get the vision to go away. She had never seen anyone like him before, the colour of his eyes, the tone of his skin and hair. Shaking her head, she convinced herself that he had to be some kind of cosplayer that took it a little too far. 

“It's only because he was such a big jerk that I'm still thinking about him!” she said allowed not sure who else she was trying to convince. 

*** 

Inuyasha ran the rest of the way back to command, easily jumping the fence before slowing his pace and walking to the security door out of the rain. To anyone else it would just look like an old abandoned factory, high dull grey walls that currently had rain pouring down the sides and a few windows on the lower floor. The majority of the window were on the second floor where everyone's rooms were. 

He hated it, hated living in the city. It made him feel closed in but that’s how things were now, long gone were the days he could run aimlessly through forests and never run into a single human or youkai. Fields and forests that went on for miles. Sighing he pushed the hood of his sweater off his head and pulled his hair out from the inside, shaking off some water from his hands. 

He shook himself off completely before pulling up the sleeve on his hoodie and swiped the black band on his wrist by the door. He waited for the beep as the door slowly opened before swiftly walking inside and it closed behind him with a sound of the locking mechanism clicking. 

Allowing his eyes to adjust to the bright florescent lighting, blinking a few times and wiping his hand down his face to remove any lingering rain water, he proceeded further inside. 

“Ahh, Inuyasha my friend, I trust your walk has allowed you to clear your mind and come back to us in a level headed, peaceful mood!” 

“Can it Bouzu! I ain’t in the mood” Inuyasha growl looking over to where the monk was currently making more Sutras. He knew he was there; he could sense his aura and smell him as soon as he made it through the corridor and into the main training room. Sitting off to the side in the kitchen area, Miroku had a stack of small papers neatly put together, a finished pile and a still to complete pile. His friend hadn’t changed a bit, aside from he cut off the small pony tail he used to wear years ago and he no longer wore his purple robes. He was always in his Collective issued Black tank top and Cargo pants, though he hated the boots and usually strolled around here in flip flops. Inuyasha didn’t blame him, he hated the boots too, took him a long time to finally accept he couldn’t run around in bare feet anymore. While inside though the boots were left in his room. 

Miroku simply laughed it off before taking his eye off his work and taking in Inuyashas soaked appearance and shaking his head. Noticing that Inuyasha wasn’t looking at him, he seemed to be deep in thought, trying to put the pieces of something together. 

“Don’t let the boss see you like that, dripping water everywhere. You know she would love a reason to yell at someone, especially you.” Miroku said calmly “I take it your walk about did not help you any?” he continued. 

“Whaddya think, didn’t help me one bit! And like I care what that bitch says.” He said it sarcastically but he couldn’t help the small smile that was trying to make its way out. The smile was short lived as the scent he was trying to forget and those piercing blue eyes popped into his mind. 

Miroku did smile at that, knowing Inuyasha for as long as he had he knew he was just joking around in his own rough way. Taking another small strip of paper, Miroku continued his work but wasn’t about to let Inuyasha off the hook yet, Sango was usually better at finding out what he was thinking. Miroku knew the hanyou well and knew there was something bothering him from his walk. There was something off with him as he still wasn’t looking his direction. He was simply looking forward towards the training floor. 

“My friend, did your brain get waterlogged, or are you that concerned about the latest case?” Miroku grinned “I cannot see it being the latter, or perhaps it has finally happened, you have run out of things to say!” he finished content with his little dig. 

This got Inuyasha attention and his head snapped toward his friend. Realizing that he had indeed been standing there not really paying much attention to Miroku. 

“I’m fine, just the same ol’ same ol’ out there. Here comes the big scary hanyou hide you children run for you lives...what else would have gone on?” Inuyasha animatedly gestured with his hands and growled out the last part. What else was he going to tell his friend. True he did scare some of the neighborhood people, but the girl he ran in to, no SHE ran into him, had left him with so many questions. He never gave a shit about humans except the ones in his pack, so why was this girl and her scent still on his mind. This was something that has never happened. 

“Alright, alright Inuyasha. But you know better then to go out without you charm." Miroku raised his hands in a peaceful gesture. Hoping not to add to his hanyou friends already troubled mood and sighed. 

“You still should get changed before Kikyo comes in here, the ice queen would love to tear into someone since we have no leads with what's going on. She’s also been in her office all morning dealing with the human authorities. Personally, I would rather it not be you; you tend to take it out on myself or Sango in training. We have another briefing within the hour to find out what they are saying.” 

Inuyasha nodded to his friend and started off toward the stairs taking them three at a time, getting out of the wet clothes would be a lot more comfortable and he also didn’t feel like dealing with Kikyo either. Ever since she was promoted to director of this command she had changed. They used to be very close nit, but now she wouldn’t give you the time of day unless it benefited her in some way. She had changed a great deal from when he first met her. Gone was the caring warm-hearted girl and in her place was a cold heart soulless bitch. 

He walked down the long hallway on the second floor to his room. Swiping his wrist band at the senor beside his door it unlocked, he opened the door and walked into his bedroom and closed the door behind him. Grabbing the hem of his hoodie he pulled it over his head and threw it into his laundry basket. Noticing how full it was getting, he whined at the thought of having to do laundry. He doubted he could just throw everything out and get new stuff again, Sango wouldn’t let him live it down for months! He quickly got his boots off and put them beside the door before quickly removing his pants and throwing them to join his hoodie. 

Looking around his room he stretched his arms above his head feeling much better now that nothing was sticking to him. His room wasn’t anything fancy but it was comfortable and what he needed. The large bed was against the far wall, the grey comforter and pillows, standard issue, still a mess from when he got up that morning and had to rush out to the newest lead. He had a small dojo like area where he could practice his katas, and a weapons wrack against the far wall. His bathroom was behind a fogged glass wall that has an opening you walked around to get into it, the shower was completely open and he had a few varieties of hanging plants around it. It was nothing like it was many years before where he could bath himself in a water fall or lake but with the Waterfall shower head Sango and Miroku got him for Christmas a few years back, it was as close as he would be getting while here. The shower took up most of the bathroom with a small sink and mirror on the other side and of course a toilet. 

Removing the last of his clothes he figured he would grab a quick shower before he got the call to come to the Briefing room, even though it was raining he was out running and should wash off before having to deal with the situation going out outside these walls. He took a quick look at himself in the mirror. his hair was mostly dry from keeping his hood up as were his ears that he twitched a few times to stretch them out. Golden amber eyes starred right back at him when he took in his face and he gave grunt to himself before his eyes trailed down in the mirror. His left hand trailing down the dark inked sleeve on his right arm. Everything black and white safe for the eyes of the large Inu yokai and the numerous cherry blossoms on his tattoo that he had gotten years ago. The figure of what his true form would look like if he was a pure blooded yokai like his father and bastard brother trailed up his arm and across his right shoulder. With sigh he turned to the shower. 

Turning the water on he stood under the water letting it run down his body. He closed his eyes only to be met again with the blue eyes of that woman. The one that showed no fear standing before him. 

“Ka-go-me" he mimicked and laughed a bit before rolling out his shoulders and shaking the vision from his head. She just got under his skin because no one has acted like that around him before and it wasn’t like he would ever see her again. Right?


	2. Pieces of The Puzzle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look into Inuyasha and his teams lives as well as digging deeper into the disappearance cases.

Inuyasha made his way down to the briefing room freshly showered and dressed in a black tank top and jogging pants, foregoing shoes and walked bare foot down the stairs. He left his hair down as some of it was still damp and he just couldn’t bother with it. Rolling his shoulders, he was already annoyed that they had to have this briefing in the first place. If the local authorities that knew about the collective could be trying at times. If they would just let them do their jobs there would be no need for them to even converse with each other. Hells this case would probably already be done and over with. But the elders of the Collective made it clear that the two needed to work together to keep the peace. 

To make matters worse he still couldn’t shake the thoughts of the women from earlier. He actually started to think of her in more detail. Her eyes weren't just blue they more of a stormy grey-blue, like the sky just after a thunderstorm. Eyes that spoke a thousand silent words, what kind of person she was, fierce, passionate, determined were the first few that came to mind. Thanks to the rain he could see she looked after herself. She was someone who cared about her body and put time into it long sleek toned muscles lay under her clothing from some kind of fitness regime. He was sure that had it not been raining she probably would have looked a lot more put together instead of sopping hair and soaked clothes. Hit by a sudden wave of needing to protect this woman he didn’t even know cause him to halt his movements, his yokai instantly rising up causing him to take a few deep calming breaths. An overwhelming desire to see her again and demand that same fiery attitude from her, but he quickly pushed it aside. Taking a few more breaths he ran his fingers though his hair and continued his on his way to the briefing room. 

“Inuyasha! INUYASHA!” An overly excited voice drew him out of his train of thought. 

“Listen runt, unless you have news about my car being fixed and ready to go I don’t wanna hear it! I've got enough goin’ on!” Inuyasha ground out. Coming to a stop he looked over to where the voice was coming from fixing the young Kitsune with a deadpan before crossing his arms over his chest and shifting his weight to one leg. He could tell Shippo was excited about something, he was practically vibrating on the spot. 

The young red head took a few steps back before puffin up his chest and standing as defiant as he could, trying to make himself look bigger and stronger than the hanyou. Shippo wasn’t the little orphaned fox kit that Inuyasha found years ago. He was much older now and looking like the equivalent to a 16-year-old human, he still had the fire red hair and the bushy fox tail, and still highly excitable. His maturity definitely hadn't changed either. 

Shippo was standing at his desk looking at Inuyasha, his many computer monitors showing different cameras angles from around the city, as well as multiple social media outlets from the last missing person. Two monitors had nothing but code on them for the latest hack Shippo was working on and one had whatever video game he was invested in at the time. His desk was cluttered with empty pocky boxes, different charms and shiny objects, nick knacks and anime figurines, as well as keyboards, a few mice and game remotes. On the far corner of his desk shat one photo of everyone on the team, Miroku and Sango happily smiling with the arms around each other, Shippo jumping midair, Kikyo was standing off to the side giving the camera a peace sign, smiling. Inuyasha standing behind everyone, arms crossed and no facial expression at all, he hated pictures. 

“What's got your panties in such a twist baka?!” Shippo pouted scrubbing his hands through his unruly hair before plopping himself back into his desk chair and sinking into himself. “I was gonna tell ya that your car is back and I fixed all the electronics, even put in a few upgrades! The shop guys actually did a decent job on the body too, can’t even tell it was Miroku’d” He said dramatically and giggled, thinking he just made the best movie reference ever, but when he looked at Inuyasha he was still just glaring at him and he could tell it went right over his head. “Oh come on! You know.... instead of Thanos’d... Miroku’d...” Shippo whined throwing his hands in the air. “You guys are all so boring and wouldn’t know anything fun if it hit you in those big dumb heads of yours!” 

“Keh, I’ll have a look my car after we find out what the local idiots have been doing with this case.” He thrust his thumb towards the briefing room before uncrossing his arms and starting to make his way across the training hall. “thanks Shippo" he called over his shoulder as he continued walked away.

The training hall took up most of the building. Completely open from the main floor to the ceiling three floors up. On the far right was the metal grated stair cases to the upper levels each ending at a balcony for that floor. From the training room floor, you could see the doors Sango and Mirokus room off to the right then Shippos room on the left, a hallway between leading to his own room and a few other spare ones. On the same side of the room was Shippo and Shiori's desks, the weapons room that housed various weapons though Inuyasha kept his in his room and Sango kept a few of hers in their room. A high-end Kitchen that rarely saw much use when there was an ongoing case. Most of them were too busy to cook anything decent so they opted for take-out and the Hallway to the medical ward. 

In the Center of the room was a large raised dojo mat floor. Taking up the majority of the room this was where they did the majority of their hand to hand training and defensive skills, or as his liked to call it “handing Miroku his ass time.” On the far left of the room was the shooting range, thought he hated guns he still carried one on missions and was an excellent shot, but he still preferred to use the Tetsusaiga. Like everything around him it had also adapted to the changing times and rather than transforming into the large blade it stayed in the thin sword form now. Never looking like the old rust thing when dormant it stayed a brilliant silver blade at all times now. 

Getting to the briefing room he opened the door, walking in he spotted Sango standing toward the back of the room leaning against the wall with her arms crossed also wearing a black tank top and joggers her hair was pulled up into a high pony tail, she didn’t look like she wanted to be there either. He made his way over to her and lend against the wall beside her. Sango simply looked over and gave him a nod before retuning her gaze to the front of the room. Miroku sat at one of the chairs around the boardroom table in the center of the room quietly flipping through a file looking deep in thought at its contents and a tablet set off to his side. He raising a hand to wave slightly to acknowledge that he knew Inuyasha was there. 

Looking around the briefing room, the large smartboards were covered in photos of all the missing people and yokai minus the most recent. Their names and details about their lives listed next to each photo. Several of the victims were in the past month alone, thought the majority had been with in the past three weeks and who knows how many more there would be until the past the time limit of a missing persons report. Whoever was doing this was picking up speed and given the length of time between the previous disappearance and the most recent one, they were going to strike again, and soon. 

Inhaling to try and clear his head and get ready for whatever crap the locals had been spewing at Kikyo all morning his dropped his eyes to the ground in front of him, thoughts of the Kagome women surfaced again causing his brow to furrow in frustration. Her scent the most prominent, her expressive grey-blue eyes, her stubbornness and willing to stand up for herself. A wave of concern passed through him wondering if she had made it to where she was going safely, the unknown causing a low growl to rumble from the back of his throat. 

“Keeping staring at the floor like that and you may burn a hole in it” Sango quipped causing him to focus on the room around him and previous thoughts to vanish. 

“Care to share with the class what's going on up there” Sango reached over and tapped Inuyasha on the forehead a few times. Pulling his head away and pushing her hand he gave her a low growl in warning to back off. 

“Now, now Inuyasha, I would rather you not growl at my lovely wife, she is simply showing concern.” Miroku sighed looking away from the papers and focusing his attention over to Inuyasha and Sango. He knew how Inuyasha could get and already knowing his defensive mood from earlier he probably should have warned Sango prior to the meeting. 

“Both of you need to shut it!” Inuyasha bit out “You know damn well I hate sitting around doing nothing!” he leveled both of them with a stare, Sango didn’t seem effected at all by his tone and wasn’t buying that there was nothing going on she had always been a very good judge of people and their moods. 

“Fine Inuyasha, but you are not usually this... standoffish.” gesturing toward Inuyasha with her hands and looking over to Miroku “Was he this bad before or after he got some fresh air?” pointing a finger to the hanyou. 

“He was actually in a better mood before he left if you want to call it that...” Miroku contemplated resuming his attention back on papers he had laid out in front of him causally waving one of his hands with a slight flourish towards Inuyasha. 

“Standing right here, don’t need you two analyzing my moods a’ight!” Inuyasha growled out through clenched teeth, getting more irritated. He didn’t need them digging into something even he didn’t understand or couldn’t even begin to explain. He hated when they ganged up on him, analyzing his moods and behaviors, they weren't his parents. Not that it happened often and he knew that they meant well he just felt outnumbered. One rarely taking his side over the other. 

“Right, now I know there is something going on with you!” Sangos voice was laced with concern as she pushed away from the wall and turned to face Inuyasha. Her hand going to her hips and she put all her weight on to one leg. “Spill Inuyasha, what did you do? Or do I have to get Miroku to pin you with an Ofuda until you tell us!” 

“Keh, like hells he would do that, I didn’t do shit and I already told ya, there ain’t nothing goin on. SO would you leave it alone woman!” Inuyasha also pushed off the wall and was now standing before Sango intensely looking down at her. He was a good head taller than her, but he knew she could handle herself if she really wanted to get into it with him. 

Before it could go any further the door to the briefing room open and Kikyo walked. She gracefully made her to the front of the room, casually cradling a tablet to her chest. Dressed in a Deep red pencil skirt that came just about her knees a small slit up the right side and a white button up blouse. Her long black hair was pulled into a low pony tail with a white silk ribbon. Her make up perfectly applied. 

“If you two are done acting like children we can begin!” She looked pointedly at Sango and Inuyasha before swiping her finger across the screen of the tablet and unlocking it. 

“We’re good” Sango replied “for now...” she whispered low enough that only Inuyasha would catch, making sure he knew that she was not done with the conversation silently and broke the starring contest between them first. She resumed her position against the wall crossing her arms across her chest with a huff. 

“Keh” was all Inuysha had to say as he waved a hand in Kikyos direction to proceed and moved to take a seat at the table across from Miroku. He sat down and leaned back lacing his hands behind his head, causally looking to the front of the room. 

“Wonderful.” Kikyo said flatly almost sounding bored. Turning towards one of the smart boards she pulled something up on her tablet then swiped her finger across the screen towards the board. A photo of the latest victim prior to her disappearance came up on screen along with all her personal information. Where she lived, her family, where she worked. All the information that was compiled like all the other victims. Like the rest of the missing humans, there was nothing that stood out as a common factor. 

“Hayashi Himari, 23-year-old female. Student at the University of Medicine...” Kikyo started blandly before turning back to the other three in the room. “After looking at all the evidence the LPD have gathered there is nothing new to report. As far as we can tell she was a good student with not a single black mark on her files. The locals have contacted her boyfriend and he was home all night with an alibi so he is not a suspect. Our team will be allowed into her apartment after the Police are done with their investigation thought I do not believe that will be needed as she was taken from another location. But we will head over non the less.” 

‘ha, our team’ Inuyasha thought ‘...right’ before propping an arm on the armrest and resting his head against his fist. 

“Does this mean you will be accompanying us out in the field Kikyo?” Miroku questioned. 

“Of course not!” she scoffed “you know it's far more important that I remain here and keep all sides informed. I do not go out into the field anymore!” she looked like she had something sour in her mouth. 

“Yea wouldn’t want to mess up her hair and manicure... who knows what higher up might pop by...” Inuyasha spat sarcastically in a low voice causing Sango to laugh but she quickly covered her month and tried to cover it up as a cough. 

Rolling her shoulders back and looking over to Inuyasha, Kikyo huffed about to say something before Miroku cut in knowing the foul mood Inuyasha was in and seeing the fight about to spill into the room. 

“I simply meant that it would be nice to have another reiki user with us, another set of eyes so to speak...” the monk trailed off raising his hands in a peaceful manner something catching his eye on a piece of paper he was looking at. “Kikyo if you would please, could you please plot out the last three kidnappings last locations?” he asked still looking intensely at his papers now spread out before him. 

Turning back to the white board Kikyo started typing on her tablet before swiping again towards the board. A map of the city soon popped up and she noted three areas with a small red X before turning to look at him expectantly. Miroku then made his way to the front of the room grabbing his own tablet from beside him and typing something quickly. 

“So we know that most of our victims have very little in common.” he turned to see that everyone was listening and then continued “at least up until now...” swiping his finger on his tablet towards the white screen he added the few plots points he had just mapped out. “After looking through all the records we had from their social media accounts, thanks to Shippo, the last three victims frequented a market not far from the University before their kidnaping. It looks like our last two missing persons were students at the University. Moving a little further back to some of the earlier cases they had also been to this Market...” he then plotted those cases out on the map as well “and going back even further into the lives of our missing I dug deeper in to the family lines to see if there was a commonality and all of them had a long line of spiritual users in their families though now the lines are watered down and you’d barely be able to tell they had spiritual powers at all.” 

“So, what are you thinking Miroku?” Sango questioned believing she knew where he was going.

“I believe that whoever is behind these kidnappings is using this market to find potential targets anyone that even shows the slightest amount of reiki in this area. The local PD probably just chalked up the occurrence as it being a popular spot, it’s packed with restaurants, store fronts and vendor stalls, it is very busy with all walks of life both human and yokai. Not to mention it seems to be a social media hot spot for selfies and the past three victims really liked their selfies...” Miroku finished, he was about to add more to his train of thought before Sango spoke up. 

“Wait...” she said before moving to the front of the room and getting a better look at the map. “isn’t this the area that there has been a slight influx of minor yokai attacks?” taping the screen. 

“Ah Sango my dear we are on the same page as always” Miroku sent her a dazzling smile which she only scoffed at and shook her head, Kikyo clearing her throat for Miroku to continue. “Each of those small attacks corresponds with the abduction date of the victims. The local attorities could be noticing the same thing but they usually just call us to deal with it and they tend to only keep records of it when there is a civilian injury.” Typing something quickly on his tablet again Miroku swiped and added all the minor youkai attacks they had dealt with and the date and time they occurred. “now going back to Hayashi’s social media, she was located on the east side of the market judging by her last Instagram post, having a similar time stamp to an attack that took place only a few streets over.” 

Inuyasha leaned forward placing his elbows on the table and linking his fingers together, taking in what Miroku and Sango were saying... before speaking “the attacks were a diversion” he paused “and being a busy location, the commotion would have pulled everyone attention away, even though it was minor we wouldn’t have even noticed something different because people always freak out with the smallest of attacks!” Inuyasha leaned back in his chair again placing his hands behind his head once more. Inyuahsa remembered the last attack ad how long it took Shippo to go through and delete all evidence of it even happening. They had to call in Shiori to help make sure that not one video or picture remained on the internet and that all media recordings disappeared. The collective using one of their members to make sure the human witnesses forgot all they saw. 

“Are there any cameras in the area?” Kikyo added, Inuyashas eyes flicking to her direction, he’d almost forgot she was there so intent on what Miroku was saying. 

“Sadly no, I had Shippo look into it when I first noticed the market showing up so much. Some of the stores have them inside but not on. None had a good angle to see anything.” 

“Well, we have somewhere to start, I will inform the Collective about these developments and I will call in the other team ahead of schedule. That way when or if there is another attack, we can cover more ground!” Kikyo spoke though there still was no emotion in her voice, she didn’t even make eye contact with anyone in the room, to focused on typing out some on her tablet. “Does anyone else have anything to contribute? Or can we wrap this up?” finally looking up from her tablet she glanced at Miroku and Sango, they both shook their heads rather than verbally saying “no”. “Wonderful. I will be in my office if you think of anything else.” With that Kikyo left the briefing room and left the other three in silence. 

“More like she will tell the collective that she figured this all out...” Sango huffed walking up to Miroku patting his shoulder “Good job Hoshi.” Miroku simply smiled “Sango you can always pay me back later for my great intellect...” Miroku purred suggestively to her. 

“Oi! I’m still in the room Bouzo...” Inuyasha sighed scrubbing a hand down his face. He was used to his best friends Hentai behavior, he didn’t want to hear anything about what he and his wife did in private, and judging by the red blush across Sangos cheeks, she didn’t like him know. 

“Inuyasha my friend, you know very well that Sango and I have a very active s...” the loud crack could be heard throughout the room cut Miroku off from finishing what he was going to say. Looking up at the couple from where Inuyasha was sitting, Miroku was cradling the back of his head and Sango stood behind him with her fists clenched to her sides. 

“Serves you right BOUZU” Inuyasha said and grinning at his best friend “you're lucky she didn’t hit you harder, you’d for sure be going to see Kaede, though I doubt she’d give you much sympathy” he laughed. “on Second thought, next time hit him harder Sango!” he chuckled again. 

“I am so glad to see my pain has put you in a better mood Inuyasha!” Miroku whined. 

“It’s your own damn fault Monk! I never asked to be a spectator to what you and Sango do!” still grinning at Mirokus discomfort. Standing from his chair Inuyasha made to leave the room but Sango stopped him. 

“And just where do you think you are going Inuyasha? We still need to finish our earlier conversation!” he could tell that she was still pissed from being blown off when he first came in. Turning around to see her hands were on her hips again but at least this time she wasn’t in his face! Running his fingers though his hair he sighed and met Sangos glare he put his hands up in surrender. 

“Look, there really isn't anything to worry about alright. I'm just trying to sort something out on my own.” Inuyasha sounding exasperated and done with the day. Sango gave him a concerned once over before Inuyasha spoke again “Honestly Sango its nothing!” he looked to Miroku to help him out but the monk simply shrugged. Sango moved herself to stand in front of Inuyasha, all the anger dissipating from her features she put a hand on his shoulder. 

“We are family Inuyasha, pack, you know you can come to us with anything, when you’re ready. We will always be there for you.” 

“Ya, ya, ya enough with the mushy shit! I’m going to grab something to eat, go see Shippo about my car and then get some rest.” he paused “I have a feeling once Kikyo tells those stuffy bastards over at the Collective about our theory, we won't be getting much sleep so you two should do the same!” He fixed them both with a pointed look, then left the room. Closing the door behind him he let out a sigh. He had a feeling this was just the beginning of something much bigger was happening with these kidnappings, something on a much larger scale, he needed to be ready, they all needed to be ready...and he needed to keep his pack safe.


	3. Holding on to each other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay so buckle up this is a long one! Could I have cut it off and made it into two chapters? Yep I could have, but i didn't LOL   
> Trigger warming with this chapter, there are mentions of unwanted touching but it does not go into great detail and there are mentions of blood.

The sound of her heels echoed off the walls of the vast open room that was the lobby. Dressed in a dark purple side pleated pencil skirt and blush loose fitting silk sleeveless top she made her way across the room. She hated this building, it was stifling, closed in and felt overly sterile. Nothing but white walls, white marble floors, a few antique pieces of art hung on the walls as well as various antique weapons from around the world and large statues from the Sengoku Period. A small seating area was off to the left for clients to come in and wait for their appointments, with of course white furniture and a few plants. To the outside world it was just another high market antiques firm dealing with multimillion-dollar clients and goods, but further back which was strictly employees only it was entirely different, it was nothing but fear, pain … death. 

Continuing her path across the lobby Kagura gripped her fan in her left hand, tapping it against the side of her leg. She passed the doors that took her to the small corner office that was hers and came up to large reception desk that was situated in the center of the room. Kanna sat there quietly with her phone head set on, the light tapping of her keyboard could be heard as she reviewing something on her computer screen. Kanna looked as she always had, all white dress, not a single detail, no frills, boring old white and her long white hair pinned back with two white bows. 

‘Sterile just like the rest of the place...’ thought Kagura and she tapped her fan on the deck as she got closer to signal to the girl she had arrived. Kanna looked up to her, vacant dark black eyes looked back at her, all Kagura got was a slight nod before Kanna slowly returned her gaze to her screen. Kagura nodded back slightly, Kanna never was one for conversation but she was the closest Kagura had to having an actual friend here. 

Moving around from the desk she turned her head toward the two large Red Oak doors that sat directly behind reception, an integrate pattern of golds and blacks weaved through the panes of wood, meticulously painted the two massive floor to ceiling doors were the only thing that really stood out with such a sharp contrast to the rest of the office around them. 

Placing both her hands on both doors Kagura took a deep breath in to steady herself before pushing the doors open, she was not looking forward to this meeting, nothing was enough, failure after failure. They weren’t even remotely close to achieving the end goal. It would be her fault, it usually was. She didn’t select a good enough candidate; they were too weak and did not possess enough spiritual powers to even make a dent. What did he expect? Reiki users were nothing like they used to be centuries years ago, sure there were a few, but even they were diluted. Gone were the pure ones, with the reiki coursing through their veins, watered down much like the yokai race, there were only so many pure blood lines of yokai left. 

Making her way in to the dimly lit room she took in her surroundings more antiques littered around the room, various weapons, statues and sacred objects all from different corners of the world, it looked like a museum had spilled its contents throughout the room. There was a couch along the far-right wall and a large antique desk at the center of the room a large leather business chair behind it. Two similar leather chairs sat in front of the desk angled slightly to each other. The strong overwhelming smell of incense burned her nose, she knew it was there to cover up the smells that the general public did not need to know about. 

She smoothed her hands down the front of her skirt, she knew there were no wrinkles it was more for her own nerves to calm herself down. Glancing to the chair on the left she saw Bankotsu reclining in the dark leather chair. He was wearing shiny black dress shoes, black suit pants and white button up business shirt it almost made her laugh to see him so put together. His one leg rested loosely across the others and his elbows rested on the arm rests. His hands were laced together in front of his face and if she didn’t know any better, she would have guessed he was deep in thought, but she knew him to well now and he only thought about a few things, money, sex, when the next time he got to kill something. He didn’t care if it was a human or youkai as long as he got to kill it, he got off on it and it disgusted her. 

Bankotsu looked her direction and gave her a smirk, it was almost like he knew she would be getting in shit, it wasn’t his fault, oh no he just brought the ones she selected in. Another reason she hated it in this building, dealing with this idiot. She made her way to the chair opposite him and sat down, her posture stiff and defensive. 

“Kagura” Bankotsu purred at her as he leaned forward to correct his posture. “You are looking absolutely radiant as always...” he flashed a suggestive smile to her that she saw from the corner of her eyes. 

“Bankotsu, is this meeting not supposed to be starting? I have things to do.” Kagura seethed, she didn’t want to be in this office any longer than she had too. 

“Hey, don’t look at me, I don’t make the boss’s schedule. He tells me to come, I come” 

“Aren’t you such a good lap dog...” Kagura she drawled turning her nose up at him. 

With that the door to the back opened and Naraku walked in. Black suit pants paired with a dark purple button shirt; his long black wavy hair fell behind his shoulders. Whipping his hands on a white towel he strolled over to the large chair behind the desk and sat down. Instantly Kagura grew more tense and it made Naraku smile, it made her skin crawl and the desire to flee the room grew. 

“Ahhh Kagura, there is no need to get so uptight, we have had a few setbacks...” he gestured with his hands and locked eyes with her, his face becoming extremely serious “but we will be correcting that today won’t we?” he smiled and it sent a chill through her spin. 

“Of course, Naraku...” Kagura breathed out quickly lowering her head so she didn’t have to hold his intense eye contact any longer. 

“Many, many failed attempts... every single one you have brought in has been of very little use to me. There must be someone out there that holds more than a speck of spiritual power like the failed attempts you have brought in, your only saving grace is the yokai have been.... sufficient.” his tone was casual and smooth “So now Kagura enlighten me on where we stand in finding someone more fitting for the task.” Naraku sat back in his chair and laced his fingers together in front of his face, studying Kagura to see what she had to say for herself. 

“Based on the failed attempts, I think we should start focusing our efforts on drawing Collective members or even their little bands of minions out. From the intel I have gathered there are a few candidates that look... promising and many of the council members being of pure blood lines one of them or perhaps one of their family members as they would be easier to pick off. I realize we thought that approaching the Collective was too risky and would draw to much attention but I think we are past that point now.” She paused and looked up before continuing again “Just grabbing anyone with a family history of spiritual powers was turning out less than acceptable outcomes, I believe if we go right to the source not only will we find someone that will meet your...requirements, but also the spiritual powers needed.” she finished and bowed her head ideally playing with her fan. 

Naraku sat quietly taking in what Kagura before he stood up from his chair. Shoving his hands into his pocket he walked around and leaned against the front edge of his desk. 

“Bankotsu, do you think you will be able to create a big enough disturbance to draw out the individuals we need and to extract some potential subjects? We would only have one shot so multiple users will need to be rounded up. Is that correct Kagura?” Naraku said nonchalant before he looked between both Bankotsu and Kagura. Kagura simply nodded in reply, then looking over to Bankotsu. 

“Yea, we’ll be able to flush out a bunch of sewer dwellers, cause a big disturbance to draw out enough of those stuckup fuckers. How many are we talking and are we doing this without casualties?” Bankotsu said looking casually at his nails. 

“Tsk” Naraku clicked his tongue, “I do not care what happens to anyone standing around as long as you bring me back something worthwhile!” he pushed away from the desk then and waved a hand at Bankotsu “Get what you need together, I want this done soon it has taken to long already! You are dismissed...” walking behind his desk again Naraku woke up his computer to begin the days tasks. 

Bankotsu jumped up from his chair and brushed off the front of his pants with that he made to leave the room, but not before giving Kagura a once over and smirked her direction “Looking forward to working closely with you again Kagura” He teased. 

Kagura turned her head away from him and crossed her arms waiting until she heard the two large oak doors close again, she made to get up and make herself scarce as well. 

“Not so fast Kagura, we are not finished...” 

Turning herself toward Naraku she straightened herself and hit her fan into her right hand. 

“Yes, My Lord?” her voice was cold and steady as she nodded to the man in front of her. 

“This will be your last chance; I am sure you are aware what will happen should you fail me yet again!” he seethed his calm demeanor completely gone now. Kagura could see the dark energy flowing around his body, getting large and more suffocating. Attempting to not seem like a scared little child she bowed low and took a few steps back, keeping her body facing him. 

“Of course, My lord. We will bring you something worthy this time.” 

Coming out of her bow she took the break in conversation as her opportunity to leave, she quickly left the room and made her way to her office without even a second glance back. She knew this was her last chance and she had to make sure this did not go wrong. 

*** 

The cool spring air and sunlight felt wonderful against her skin. She was worried the red pleated sun dress, cardigan and matching flats she had chosen to wear wouldn’t be warm enough for the day but it ended up being perfect, plus the dress had pockets! She loved dresses with pockets! She chose a picnic table near the garden area in the park across from the University, Large senior trees and green sitting areas covered most of the area with picnic tables scattered here and there and a cobble stone pathway leading to the different parts of the park's vast property. Large building housed the out perimeter of the property mostly belonging to the University but a few were privately owned old buildings. A marble fountain with planted flowers was directly in the middle of the garden and she could hear the water trickling from where she was sitting. Kagome got there a little earlier to get a good spot and hoping to get a bit of her school work done before meeting her classmates to go over a few things for their pharmacology assignment that was due the next day. She doubted they would actually get any work done though, hence why she got there early. There was always some gossip going around that they were dying to talk about, most of the time she would just sit there and listen, adding a comment here and there if they asked her opinion and hoping they would leave her nonexistent love out of the conversation. 

Tapping her pen against her note book she sighed and looked around the garden area. There were a few students milling around, a few random people and a group of junior archery girls giggling and heading to their lesson on the other side of the park. It looked like one of the girls had gotten herself a new bow as the others were smiling and admiring it. It made Kagome think about her bow, sure it was old and worn but her father had gotten it for her and she would never trade it for a newer one, she would just restring it when it needed it but still, she smiled at the joy the girl had showing her friends her newest possession. 

Taking in a breath of the fresh air she looked back to the work in front of her, she had a few books stacked to her right, her note book directly in front of her and her pharmacology book to the right. It wasn’t that she hated pharmacology, she was very good at it but she preferred herbology and natural healing. Even so she was a head of all her class mates and had top scores in all her classes. 

Placing her pen down she stretched both her hands above her head, hearing a pop here and there she released a yawn. ‘Probably should have stopped and got a coffee before getting in to all of this’ she thought to herself. She quickly took her phone out of her bag to see if maybe she had time to run to the campus café and grab one, doing the math in her head she figured she would only have five minutes and that definitely wasn’t enough. Sighing in defeat she placed her head on her note book and groaned. 

“Are you trying to learn through Osmosis Kagome?” someone teased and giggled. 

“I forgot to get coffee, and learning needs coffee...” Kagome groaned into her note book before releasing a huffed and looked up to the offending giggler. 

Two of her classmates stood on the other side of the picnic table. Ichika and Yui both stood there smiling at her, Yui with her hands behind her back. Ichika was a taller girl with short dark hair that she left down and Yui was shorter than herself and much curvier, today she had her long black hair pulled into a high pony tail. Both girls were wearing their usual band t-shirt's and skinny jeans with their back packs slung over their shoulders. They had been in the same classes their first year at the university and always tried to have the same schedule since. Ichika was a ball of energy and was the biggest gossip of the group, where Yui was more reserved and tried to keep Ichika in line most of the time. The two balancing each other out. 

“Aren’t you glad we know you so well Kagome?” Ichika teased again with a smile before Yui produced a tray of coffees from behind her back. 

“Tadah!” Yui cheered 

“Oh my god I Love you guys!” Kagome gratefully took the coffee with her name on the side, removing the lid before wrapping both her hands around the cup, she took a long whiff, sighing and letting her head fall back dramatically, a smile slowly creeping across her face. Her friends always knew exactly how she liked her coffee and she was extremely grateful for that. “I will be able to make it through this assignment and live now.” The other two girls laughing at her antics. 

“You two can laugh it up, but coffee is the sweet nectar of LIFE!” Kagome stated and took a sip of the glorious hot liquid releasing a sigh as it went down her throat. 

“If you want to call what you drink actual coffee! I think it's more sugar than anything else and maybe next time you’ll remember to get it before coming to school!” Yui chided and shook her head as she took a seat across from Kagome and started to unpack her books Ichika doing the same when Kagome noticed there was only two other coffees. 

“Is Ayumi not joining us today?” Kagome questioned confused as she was always part of their group study and home work sessions. 

Ayumi was the one Kagome had known the longest. They had been friends since they were kids and had grown up together. She was the same height as Kagome but smaller in size, where Kagome was lean strong muscle from her all her training, Ayumi was petite and graceful. Out of the four of them Ayumi was the quietest and never did much with them outside of school because of how strict her parents were. 

“Nope” Yui said after taking a sip of her coffee, all her books out and ready to go “You know how her parents are and with all the kidnappings lately they are being extract strict, I’m surprised they haven't pulled her out of all her classes!” 

Kagome nodded and looked over towards one of the older buildings not affiliated with the university. Ayumis father worked there but she had no clue what he actually did. Ayumi said he was in politics but never really said what kinds. It wasn’t too far away from where they were sitting and she could see the glass doors at the entrance with two other buildings on either side of it. Suddenly feeling worried about her friend, she took another sip of her coffee. She didn’t think it was fair how controlling they were of their daughter's life but there wasn’t much she could do about it and Ayumi never seemed like it bothered her much. 

“Ayumi is top of the class next to you Kagome, but I heard Ayumi got in cozy with one of her father's associate so that probably added to her lock down. Her father has her at work with her today.” Ichika chimed in again but the comment only made Yui scoffed. 

“You know that is only a rumor Ichika and a terrible one at that, people just want scandal!” Yui glared at the girl beside her silently telling her to drop it. 

“And Ayumi would never go for it... she's too...” Kagome added searching for the word but it wasn’t coming to mind. 

“Pure” the two girls across from her said at the same time which made Kagome release a breathy laugh. 

Kagomes glanced over at the office her father worked in, a little concerned for her friend but quickly shook it off. If it was anything major, she was sure her friend would come to her to talk. “Sure, let’s go with that!” smiling picked up her pen and tapped it on her note book “well let's get this assignment done, I have to head over to the shrine after class today and I don’t want to be doing this late into the night!” Kagome set her coffee to the side. 

“Orrrr we could ask about how the date with Hojo two weekends ago!” Ichika waggled her eye brows at Kagome “Don’t think we forgot and were letting you off the hook!” 

Kagome almost spit the mouthful of coffee out at the sudden shift to her life and groaned internally. Composing herself before speaking “First off, it was not a date between Hojo and I, it was dinner with his family and mine. Our families have been friends for years, since we were kids and even before that! And Second off for the last time pleaseeeee” she drew out “there is nothing ever going to happen with Hojo and I, we are friends that’s it!” 

“Doubt Hojo looks at it that way, with the number of times he has surprised you on campus with gifts!” Ichika retorted. 

“I have told him many times that he is good friend. I have also told him I have no interest in him romantically. If he can't see around that then I don’t know what else to tell you and I am definitely not leading him on in any way!” Kagome explained “now, can we please get on with assignment?” 

Nodding in agreement though one looked more reluctant then the other they all started looking over the questions they already had done and helping each other through the next few. They stayed that way for the next hour in comfortable conversation and light banter between the three of them. Tuning out the rest of the world they had their assignments completely finished. Kagome set her pen down and inspected the bottom of her coffee cup, she knew it was empty long ago but she wished she had just one more mouthful. Placing the cup down she stretched her arms above her head and released a sigh. 

“Well I am glad that’s done!” she said happily and started packing her books into her bag. Once she was all packed, she took out her phone to check her messages and emails. Ideally scrolling through her messages, she noted there was nothing pressing and closed up the screen. 

“Yeah it’s amazing what happens when you stay on track” Yui teased as her gaze fell on Ichiku. 

Ichiku hufffed and placed her hand on her chest an “I am offended you think that I am the cause of any distraction.” pushing Yui in the shoulder with her other hand. 

“Hey!” Yui yelped as she almost fell off the bench and quickly grabbed on to the table top to balance herself. Both girls gave each other the stare down before they burst out laughing. 

Kagome just sat there and watched the interaction giggling behind her hand on the other side of the table. Placing both her hands on the table top she pushed herself up to stand and moved a leg over the bench seat then the other leg. Moving away from the picnic table she lightly brushed her hands down the front of her dress in an attempt to smooth away the wrinkles from sitting. 

“Kagome that is such a beautiful Dre...” Yui started when they were all startled by the sound of screaming coming from the eastern side of Campus. Looking over in that direction they couldn’t see what was going on but a sudden rush of students running past them caused the girls to group together when a loud boom had them ducking down and covering their heads. 

“What the hell is going on?!” Ichika gasped, fear etched across her face. Hiding beside the other girls and bracing an arm on the picnic tables bench she pushed to see if she could see anything that was going on when Yui pulled her back down. 

“Stay down you idiot! We should be getting out of here like all the smart people are doing!” Yui rushed out watching as people ran past them not giving them any notice. 

Kagome grabbed her bag and stood up trying to see the best way for her and her friends to escape from whatever was happening when another loud boom rang through the campus and into the park area causing people to scream and fall everywhere. Debris was sent flying from the blast and huge dust clouds rose up from the buildings that had been demolished. Trying to remain calm she waved a hand to her friends signaling one of them to take it and hoping they would then latch on to each other. Never had she seen anything like this, it was like something out of an action movie, people were hugging onto other people while they were running trying to get a way, debris and rubble from the blasts was everywhere. People were panicking and didn’t know where to go, just running in all directions. 

Feeling someone grab her hand she looked down to see a frightened Ichika who had her arm around a hyperventilating Yui. They were both terrified. 

“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine!” she hoped to sound soothing and pulled her friend to their feet. Pointing in the opposite direct from the blasts she pulled her friends calmly, knowing if she panicked it wouldn’t do them any good “We will head that way, away from the campus. I’m sure there will be police and rescue services there, that’s where the main road is right?” she smiled and her friends lost a little tension in their shoulders grateful that Kagome was keeping a level head. Nodding with a bit of determination Kagome motioned for the girls to start making their way across the garden. 

She wasn’t sure how long they had stood there willing their legs to move when another explosion went off, this time it was much closer and it threw the girls to the ground. Blinking and pushing herself up Kagome quickly took stock of everything around her. Her two friends were not too far from her and she got to her hands and knees before fully pushing herself up and stumbling over to them. Kneeling down beside Yui she placed a hand on her back to let he know she was there. Yui turned her head slowly and glanced up at Kagome, the tear streaks down her face were very noticeable with all the dust and dirt now caking her friends features. 

“We’ll be fine...we need to get moving...” Kagome said though it was more for herself this time. she could feel a warm liquid running down the side of her face. Reaching a hand up she tentatively wiped it away and looked down at her hand to see the dark redness of her blood coating her fingers. 

*** 

They had been sparring for over an hour, both of them sweating and panting but Miroku was determined to could get Inuyasha on his ass. He’d only managed it once before and that was because he and Sango had teamed up on him, tired of the half-demons cocky attitude. They paid for it but it was so worth it just to see his face! 

“You done yet Monk?” Inuyasha teased “you’re getting sloppy. I bet even Shippo could kick yer ass right now!” He smirked rolling his shoulders and neck before taking a defensive stance again. 

“Ha, You’re the one looking a little tired my friend, I believe you are slowing down in your old age!” the monk shot back without missing a beat and lunged forward at Inuyasha, hoping at the back of his mind that maybe could get him down and they could wrap this up. He was getting tired but he wouldn’t let Inuyasha know that! 

Inuyasha saw the attack coming, Miroku could be predictable at times after how long they had all been together. Grabbing onto Mirokus left wrist he effortlessly flipped him over his shoulder and his back hit the training mats with a muted thud before Inuyasha was on top of him, his knee holding him down and fist raised in mock attack. 

“Give it up bouzu, you ain’t gonna get me today.” Inuyasha said grinning at the monk's defeat. Standing he held out his hand to help his friend off the mat. Without missing a beat Miroku took the offered hand and pulled himself up, leaning forward and placed his hands on his knees to catch his breath before wiping his brow with his arm. 

“You know Inuyasha, gloating doesn’t make you a favorable person...” Mirkou got out between breaths and laughed a little “you should be glad it was me and not Sango, she’d hand you your ass and you know it!” looking up at the hanyo smiling. 

Inuyasha couldn’t help the smile that crawled across his features. He knew Miroku was right, Sango could give him a run for his money any day with her back ground. What else would you expect when you came from a long line of Youkai Exterminators, she was well trained and extremely efficient at what she did. Removing his sweat drenched tank top Inuyasha flung it over one shoulder, he stretched his arms up in the air and then romed the hair tie holding his hair back in a pont tail. His smiled turned to a grin as he looked down at his best friend and made eye contact. 

“Yeah if it wasn’t for that wife of yours, I’d have no good training partner...” 

Miroku made to swipe at Inuyasha for the comment but the hanyo was to quick and instead of hitting Inuyasha he landed himself in a head lock. Dropping his hands Miroku just hung there letting out a quiet huff which caused Inuyasha to bark out a laugh. Inuyasha finally let him go but not until he messed up the monks hair badly and pushed him away with a light shove to the shoulder. Miroku shooting the hanyo with an overly offended look which only caused Inuyasha to laugh harder. 

Miroku was glad to see his friend in such good spirits, he knew a good spar would help. The past couple of months have been heavy with tension around the building they called home. Ever since Kikyo was promoted to director and things between her and Inuyasha went to shit. Then there was the ever build case load they had had lately. He lightly shoved the hanyo back in retaliation though barley budge him. They continued their shoving match and some banter as the two made their way over to the side of the training floor and to the stairs up to the living quarters. Both being in need of a shower and dry clothes before anything else got done. They had almost reached the stairs when Inuyasha stopped suddenly, turning his head towards Shippos desk he heard the sounds of people screaming and crying out as well as a loud boom. Miroku continued on chatting and walking but came to a halt when he noticed his friend's demeanor change. Averting his attention in the direction the hanyo was looking he noticed Sango was standing beside the desk with her arms crossed over her chest, and Shippo sat in his chair looking very serious for the young trickster. 

Sango looked in their direction and waved them over with a nod of her head, no words needed. They both knew whatever it was their joking around was done for the day. Making their way over to the desk they came to stand beside Sango and both adopted a similar stance to her own. Reading the head ling at the top of the once Screen “BREAKING NEWS: University of Medicine Under Attack” in big bold letters. The News anchor rambling on about the damage and how they didn’t know what was the cause of the explosions when another Loud blast rang through the screen, the news anchor and crew ducking for cover but still reporting. People could be seen fleeing and running in all directions, some injured and others helping. Another screen showed everything from a different angle, local law enforcement had arrived and so had the fire department. They all studied the screens silently when something about the whole thing made Inuyashas instincts suddenly on high alert, he let out a low growl. Dropping his hands to his sides he could feel the claws start to dig into his skin of his fist clenched hands. 

“If you two are finished messing around perhaps we should get...” Sango began and then noticed her friends current state “Inuyasha, are you alright?” 

“Gear up, we leave in 5 mins... Shippo tell the Kikyo we are checking on something...” Inuyasha ground out before turning abruptly and storming off in the direction of his room, he didn’t even bother taking the stairs he cleared them all in one jump and then disappeared down the hallway before the others could say a single word. 

Turning quickly back to the screen Sango studied it again to try and make sense of what set him off so quickly but found nothing that seemed to be out of place besides the obvious. 

“Perhaps he thinks this is another abduction attempt?” Miroku shrugged as he leaned closer to the screen also seeming to try and figure Inuyasha out as well. 

“Whatever it is we better get moving” Sango grabbed her phone off the desk and started towards the weapon's room at a brisk pace to get suited up with what she needed “you know he will be even more pissed if we aren’t ready before he gets back down here.” She yelled across the room and pointed a finger up towards where Inuyasha has disappeared. Entering the code on the lock without even looking, the door slid open and she disappeared inside. 

Miroku released a sigh thinking of the nice hot shower he was just about to have when Shippo cleared his throat beside him. 

“She right you know, and I don’t feel like dealing with a pissed off Inuyasha when you guys get back!” 

“I’m going, I’m going...” Miroku let out a breathy sigh while waving his hand at Shippo following the same path his wife just took. He prayed to himself that this was just some gas leak and nothing major, that was they would be able to get back quickly, perhaps grab something for lunch on the way back! Yes, that was definitely what he was hoping for! 

Inuyasha was the first one back in the training hall, his long silver hair was pulled back in to a high pony tail. Dressed all in black, his tactical pants were form fitting to his legs his gun holster strapped to his left thigh. He had thrown on another black tank top to go under his tactical vest the name Takahashi was embroidered in red over the right breast pocket. He preferred to keep his arms bare but has protective forearm guards from his wrist up to his just below his elbow. He held Tessaiga in his right hand looking over his shoulder towards the weapons room where he could hear Miroku and Sango finishing up. 

They appeared moments later in similar gear as Inuyasha, though Sango had much more form fitting pants and they both had the last name Tsujitani embroidered on their vests. They also carried two guns and had a tactical belt each for carrying various items. Sangos carried various exterminator powders and some small explosive devices. Mirokus has various spiritual items as well as his retractable staff attached to the back. 

Nodding to both of them Inuyasha attached Tessaiga to his back and made his way to the exit not saying a single word. Sango and Miroku nodded back and once Inuyasha had his back to them they both shared a look and started walking in the same direction. 

“I’ll drive!” Miroku beamed trying to release some of the tension but it only earned him a smack from Sango “What... I'm a good driver!” He pouted looking thoroughly insulted. 

“If we want to get there today, Inuyasha or myself should drive!” she grinned at him and then took off in a jog to catch up to their leader. 

“So, What's the plan here? Are you thinking this is an abduction attempt?” Sango questioned once she was flanking Inuyashas left side, looking up to him as she adjusted her vest. She hated rushing to get ready, something always felt like it wasn’t on right. 

“If it is, they are pretty stupid.” Inuyasha paused tilting his head from side to side “not as low profile like it has been in the past...Usually just some low racking yokai attack, this is massive compared to that!” looking down at exterminator he shrugged and waved his wrist in front of the console to get out of the building. 

Miroku flanked his other side also adjusting his gear, tugging on the forearm guards and then fixing his belt. “Stupid, perhaps, or they are specifically targeting someone this time round and they haven't had a chance to grab them. Maybe they are trying to flush someone out.” huffing he glared at the forearm guard again and pulled it down more. 

“Whatever it is we’re going; something just doesn’t feel right about this whole thing.” Inuyasha lead them all to a hanger nearby, swiping his wrist over another console the hanger doors slowly opened. Inside the housed all their vehicles, lights slowly flicker on as they walked in. Spotting his car to the left Inuyasha turned and looked at Sango. 

“We’re taking your car this time; I am not letting him near mine ever again!” He thrust a thumb in Mirokus direction before Sango laughed but agreed. 

“Hey My plan worked didn’t it!?” Miroku exclaimed throwing his hands in the air for good measure “It stopped that massive bear youkai from pummeling a building full of people!” he huffed again not even sure if the other two were listening. 

They all quickly jumped into Sangos Jaguar XE revving up the engine she peeled out of the hanger and sped towards the direction of the University. Weaving through traffic it wouldn’t take them long to get there as most in the area were aware something was happening there and stay clear. 

Parking the car Inuyasha was the first to get ready to jump out before Sangos hand stalled his movements. “Your charm Inuyasha.... it’s the middle of the day” She looked at their friend with remorse, knowing he hated the damn charm but it was necessary especially during the day. 

She only got a grunt in response as he pulled out the beaded necklace from one of his vest pockets and pulled it over his head with a huff. Instantly Inuyashas features changed. Gone was the long silver hair, replaced with black strands. His most distinguishable yokai features were gone as well triangular dog ears replaces with that of a human and his golden amber eyes were now a deep brown. Waiting for the charm to do its job he waited a few more seconds before jumping out of the vehicle, already scenting the air and listening in every direction. Even though he looked human now he still retailed all his demonic powers. Sirens were blocking out most of the other sounds but he could pick out people nearby, screaming, consoling each other, calling out names for people that were missing. It was his nose that picked up what he didn’t want though... low level yokai, ones that hung out in the sewers for the most part and barely came to the surface. Now he knew this was all set up. 

“Minor Yokai” he sniffed in the direction where the most damage was “you two head that way, nothing you can’t handle on your own, but call me if you need me!” pointing towards where students and faculty were still coming from “I’m gonna check on things from above, someone got those things up here.” he finished and confirming with his team. Fishing an ear piece out from a vest pocket he inserted it in his left ear and then activated their communications channel on his wrist Miroku and Sango doing the same. 

All nodding to each other Sango and Miroku took off in a run against the flow of humans and yokai trying to get away from the chaos, Inuyasha taking one strong leap and he was on the roof of the nearest building. He ran along the edge keeping his eyes trained bellow, scenting and listening for anything that was out of place. 

He jumped to the next roof over and stopped, looking down into the Large park area he noticed a few students still just standing around when the colour red grabbed his attention. All his focus went to the girl in the red dress trying to get her friend to move in the direction away from danger. He watched as she coxed them off the ground and gave them direction. Quickly sniffing the air in their direction, her scent hit him, it was her, the girl from a few days ago. “Fuck...” he froze and cursed under his breath. his heart started to hammer against the walls of his chest. Even though they were not close he knew it was her. Claws digging into the side of the building he willed her to move, get out of there. 

*** 

“Come on you two, we have to MOVE!” Kagome pleaded with her classmates, trying to get them to get up faster off the ground. They were both in hysterics and it was like trying to make a limp noodle stand up. “it’s not safe here, it's safer by the main road!” she was really trying to remain calm but they were starting to frustrate her and her fight of flight instincts wanted to takeover. 

Finally managing to maneuver the girls to their feet, she took one more look at the devastation going on in the opposite direction then they were going to go praying that no one was seriously hurt and that everyone she knew had made it out ok. They had managed a few steps when something caused her to pause, she could feel it tingling against her skin and made her gasp in response. She was about to turn and look towards the building behind them when gun shots and a cry for help drew her out of her thoughts. 

“HELP, Somebody Help m...” the muffled female voice was cut off and Kagomes eyes quickly darted in that direction. What she saw caused her heart to drop and she almost dropped to her knees. 

“Ayumi!” she cried. Her dear friend was being dragged from her fathers build by man she had never seen before. Ayumi was kicking and fighting against him but it was very clear he was much stronger and larger than the timid girl. Another man dragged Ayumi’s mother and another female behind him. 

She didn’t think, she dropped her bag was running towards her friend. The cries of Ichika and Yui fell deaf on her ears. Running as fast as she could she had to help them, she couldn’t let anything happen to them. Noticing a bow and quiver on the ground, left discarded by one of the junior girl's she scooped it them up in one graceful dip. The quiver thrown over a shoulder thankful that the arrows weren't tossed all over the ground, she didn’t need it full but the more arrows she had the better she felt! 

Continuing her fast pace her legs started to protest with how fast she was going and the adrenaline now coursing through her veins she notched and arrow and let it loose in front of the man holding Ayumi causing the man to stop abruptly and glare in her direction. 

She was a few meters away from them and notched another arrow in a quick fluid motion “If you think I missed, you are gravelly mistaken. Release them now or my next arrow will be found somewhere very unpleasant.” Kagome threatened standing tall glaring right back at the two men. Ayumis panicked eyes connected with Kagomes the tears streaming down her face. Kagome almost feel the captured women's fear. These two men looked normal but there was definitely something off about them. Looking back to the man holding her friend her stomach flipped with the smirk he was now giving her. She took both men in the one holding Ayumi was tall and very muscular, only wearing a white tank top and dark jeans. His long black blue hair was pulled back into a braid at his back, a purple star was painted on his forehead and a sword strapped to his back. The other was equally tall and muscular, had shorter hair that was pulled back into a top knot and wore what looked like females clothing, a bright yellow top with a floral design to one side, skinny dark pants and he also had a sword. 

“Well well well, what do we have here Jakotsu?” he purred tiling his head to the man behind him holding the other females. He licked his lips and looked Kagome up and down. The way he looked at her made bile ride in her throat and she swallow it down in disgust. 

The other man, Jakotsu he had been called looked her over and scoffed “hmmmm not my type...” rolling his head to the side almost looking bored with everything going on he sighed and then started to drag his two captives away again. 

*** 

Inuyasha heard the cries for help his attention being ripped away from the woman in the red dress and he saw the civilians being dragged out of the far building, he knew it, it had been a set up! Getting ready to leap towards them his jump was halted when he heard her. 

“Ayumi!” Her voice was strained and his focus was on the woman whose scent he couldn’t forget as she charged towards the two men. 

“What the fuck are you doing wench?!” he seethed through clenched teeth struggling to keep his yokai under wraps. Leaping down to the other two girls that were standing froze watching the idiot run towards danger he landed beside them. “Get out of here!” he growled at them as the both startled and almost fell over from shock “NOW!” 

“B-but our friend!” the one protested looking in the direction that Kagome took off in. Growling louder causing them both to jump a few steps away from the now angered hanyo. 

“I’ll get her, now get the hell outta of here!” trying to say calmly but right now he wanted to get over to her to put himself between her and those men. The two girls finally took the hint and set off towards the main road. He knew they would be fine there; he could see the police set up from where he was. 

He waited until they were gone before he jumped up to the roof of an adjacent building and began running towards her, her scent getting stronger the closer he got, he didn’t smell any fear coming from her which surprised him again. He watched as she let loose an arrow halting the men's movements and heard her warning to them. 

Keeping himself low so he wouldn’t be detected he inched closer until he was above and between the first male and the woman. The smell of arousal hit his him, it was rolling off the male only holding the one female. He tried but he couldn’t suppress the low growl that rumbled in his throat claws digging into his closed fists. Narrowing his eyes, Inuyasha took a deep breath, he was sure some of his more yokai instincts were coming out, it was pressing at his senses begging to be let out and kill the male. 

“Sango, Miroku. When you guys finish up over there, I need you at my location.” He spoke evenly into the band on his wrist. Trying not to alert them to the inner turmoil he was currently dealing with. 

*** 

Adjusting her shoulders slightly to trying and shake off some of the disgust she felt the warm tingling against her skin again. It seemed to sooth her and made her feel safe. Feeling more confident she addressed the man holding her friend again. “You will release them now!” her tone rang strong despite the surroundings and let them know she was completely serious with her warning. 

“See here’s the issue with that, my boss wants these little bitches and we can’t go back empty handed...” he shrugged but continued to smile at Kagome “but rather than just taking these three, I think I’ll just add you to the party. Unlike my friend here you are definitely my type, I’ll show you a really good time before killing you. How about that?” he said suggestively his smile turning deadly and serious “I Haven’t been able to have some fun in a while!” he licked his lip again but never lost eye contact with Kagome. 

“Bankotsu, let's go... this is so dull...” Jakotsu whined, sighing for added effect. “If you want to take that one with us hurry it up! I hate having to touch... these two” he indicated with his head to the two woman he was roughly gripping onto. “they’re old and this one...” He jolted Ayumi’s mother “thinks her stupid powers would have any effect on me.” 

“And what makes you think I will be going anywhere?!” Kagome declared defiantly “last I looked I'm the one with the weapon pointed at you!” 

Shifting Ayumi in his grip she let out a pained yelp “A fiery one eh, I like it. At least I know you’ll put up a fight and not just lay there.” 

Kagome gripped the bow she was holding tighter narrowing her eyes and completely ignoring what he had just said to her, she had to save her friend and the others or at least hold the men here until help arrived. She wouldn’t back down and run, she would never be able to live with herself is she did. No, she would fight as hard as she could. 

“Last chance asshole, let them go!” Kagome hissed making sure her aim would hit the one called Bankotsu and not Ayumi. 

“Jakotsu, I think I am in love!” Bankotsu beamed happily he face radiating pure joy. It only earned a tsk’ing noise from Jakotsu and now he looked irritated rather than bored when he stopped dragging his captives to look at Bankotsu again. Squeezing Ayumi a little tighter to his body Bankotsu heard the girl he held whimper a quiet “Kagome, please!” 

“Kagome is it?” He rolled the name around and he looked like he was deep in thought “Kagome... I like it!” this time his grin caused Kagome to falter slightly. No one had ever anyone looked at her like that and it sent a chill right down her spine. The look was completely primal and belonged to a maniac. 

“K-keep dreaming” she managed to stutter out cursing herself mentally for the break in her voice. She didn’t want to appear weak. She couldn’t afford to let him know she had cracked ever so slightly with his words. Growing impatient she felt a pulse of energy run through her and let the arrow fly, it left the bow with a quick woosh glowing with a soft pink before it imbedded in Bankotsu’s left shoulder. He instantly released Ayumi whose eyes were wide with shock she scrambled as fast as she could to get over to Kagome despite having wobbly legs and almost passing out. She gripped the back of Kagomes shirt and hid behind her childhood friend, now savior. 

Inuyasha caught the quick flash of reiki that was released from the girl but it was gone as quick as it came. She didn’t radiate a single drop again. “What the hells?” he whispered, he knew you either had it or you didn’t, there was no in-between. 

“Bitch!! She actually shot me!” Bankotsu roared “I thought she was joking... who uses a bow and arrows!?” yanking the arrow out from his shoulder without even a wince he tossed it to the ground. If Kagome thought he looked like a maniac before now it was even worse. “I was going to be gentle with you but now HA you’re going to wish you were dead when I am done with you bitch!” he seethed as his eyes went wide and started to storm towards the two girls. 

Kagome notched another arrow with the same grace and speed, Ayumi stepping back to give her some room to stand correctly when she noticed that Bankotsu not only had a sword strapped to his back but two guns on either side of his hips. The tingling still brushed over her skin calming her drawing the arrow back she aimed at the enraged man coming towards them. She would keep firing until she ran out if that’s what it took. 

“Shoulda listened to her asshole...” Kagome heard the rough gravelly voice coming from behind her but she never heard anyone approach fopm there. Keeping her stance facing the threat she took her eyes off her target for only a brief second to see the man slowly standing from a crouch behind her. ‘Where did he come from?’ she questioned herself, when a vision of the man in the red hoodie popped into her head ‘it’s couldn’t be they look nothing alike... the jerk from the other day...but the voice...no it can't be!’ she thought then trained her sight back on the threat not letting her arrow drop. 

Inuyasha studied the two men and then rolled his shoulders back while cracking his knuckles at the same time. “Though I am kinda glad you didn't... means I get to kick your asses now!” he grinned looking down at his hands before locking his eyes on Bankotsu. Off to the corner of his vision he saw Miroku and Sango coming in from the opposite direction ‘right on time’ he thought. Making his way to Kagomes side he paused and turned his attention to the two girls. One standing tall holding her ground the other scared shitless and whimpering quietly. 

“You should get to the main road; I’ll take it from here.” He spoke more to Kagome but she didn’t lower the bow, she still had it trained on the now empty handed Bankotsu. Ayumi looked back and forth between Kagome and newcomer but didn’t say a word, she knew this was her chance to get to safety and she was going to take it. 

“Come one Kags, please let's go” she pleaded pulling Kagomes shirt a little but Kagome made no indication of moving. 

“Go Ayumi, Ichika and Yui are at the main road. I’ll meet you over there.” Kagome shot her friend a quick reassuring smile allowing herself to take her eyes of Bankotsu knowing she wasn’t alone with the new guy there. 

“No, you’re goin’ too wench, so get moving!” irritated that she would even think she was staying anywhere around here he growled at her but still Kagome didn’t move. Ayumi on the other hand took a few hesitant steps back. Not really wanting to leave Kagome but after her mother yelled at her to run, she ran as fast as she could to get away from the men that tried to take her. 

The anger poured off Bankotsu even Jakotsu moved away from him. “You think I’m scared of a Mutt like you? Stinking Half-breed! Think we can’ see through that stupid charm?” he laughed as he said it clenching his fists at his side. “I’ll finish you off and then take my anger out on that pretty little thing beside you.” 

“No one’s touching ‘er...” He said through clenched snarling teeth, his yokai instincts pushing forward again. Sinking into a fighting stance he glared at what he assumed was the leader of the two “Now get out of here!” he yelled at Kagome, his voice sounding rougher and deeper than it had before. 

“ohhhhhhhh now this one I like!” Jakotsu chimed excitedly smiling directly at Inuyasha. Kagome was sure if he didn’t have his hands full, he would have been jumping up and down clapping. “I Want to take him home!” Inuyasha snarled again he only glared at the strange man that instantly weirded him out. 

“Inuyasha, it was kyūso running around and they don’t cause explosions...” Sangos voice came quietly through the ear piece causing his eyes to flicker in her direction for a second “There has to be someone else but we haven't found them.” 

He brought his sight back to the two males in front of him, he didn’t want these two bastards knowing he had back up and more was probably on the way if Shippo was staying on top of what was happening. The knowledge that there could be another besides these two didn’t make him any happier that Kagome was still there. 

Miroku and Sango choose that moment to make their presence known. Walking out into the open Miroku had his staff at the ready and Sango had her guns drawn. They separated from each other to affectively cage the suspects in. 

The sounds of multiple police officers also advancing across from them caused Kagome to look their way and notice the two newcomers that were dressed the same and the man to her side. She lowered her bow knowing they had the two men surrounded, there was nowhere to run. She also noticed how close the black-haired man had gotten to her side but it didn’t bother her, if anything it calmed her. 

Shifting their eyes both Bankotsu and Jakotsu shared a look. Having a silent conversation between each other Jakotsu released his captives and moved closer to Bankotsu. Inhumanly fast Bankotsu pulled two guns Jakotsu doing the same firing wildly at Kagome and Inuyasha, they must have figured if they couldn’t bring anything back with them, they would just take them out. 

Kagome gasped dropping the bow she flung her hands out in front of her face and clenched her eyes shut. The feeling of someone surrounding her, holding held her tightly against their chest made her gasp. He smelled like the forest behind her family's shrine with a mix of sweat and musk. A strange pulse shot through her body and she braced for the impact of bullets. Shot after shot fired and she clung to his vest trying to puller herself closer to him panting for breath when the loud gun fire finally stopped. Kagome blinked her eyes in confusion catching the name on the vest of her human shield, she relaxed her grip on the vest a little “we weren’t hit...” she whispered to herself. 

Slowly looking up to see a perfect barrier surrounding the pair. It gleamed a translucent pink much like the rest of her body that was sparkling with an aura she had never seen before. Her eyes wide examining her hands she pushed herself away from the male thinking it was his doing but he just stood there with his eyes clenched tight and labored breathing. Whatever was going on it was apparently coming from her. Kagome blinked a few times and doubled checked that she was indeed unharmed and the barrier dropped as quickly as it went up. The man whose name was Takahashi seemed to relax then as he turned to place himself between her and the threats before them and pushed her to stay behind him. 

“Looks like we aren't completely out of luck Jakotsu...The Boss is really going to want to meet her!” Bankotsu whispered impressed with the pureness of reiki they had just witnessed “Renkotsu dealt with the other vermin!” he yelled. 

A blast exploded to everyone's left and large pieces of a building crashed to the ground cutting Miroku and Sango as well as the police teams off from Inuyasha and Kagome. Inuyasha couldn’t see the person that they called but he had to be close. The smell of explosive powered in the air and dust masked everything else. Keeping Kagome close he saw Bankotsu and Jakotsu charging towards them both had their sword drawn and ready to attach. 

With one arm behind him holding Kagome he had little choice when the pair jumped to the air with their sword above their heads, he raised his unoccupied arm to block the blow. They were going for a killing blow but when their swords came in contact with his forearm guards, he was able to take it and force them back. 

“Stay behind me!” Putting a bit of distance between himself and Kagome he called over his shoulder to her. Gripping the hilt of Tessaiga he pulled the sword from its sheath and readied for another attack. Kagome simply nodded and gave an affirmative hum. 

Jakotsu attacked first followed by Bankotsu each attack fast and vicious, they didn’t let up and Inuyasha could only go in to defense mode until he had gotten Kagome somewhere safe. He saw his chance and pushed her towards a fallen piece of building that would shield her from the two attackers and he could keep an eye on her. Pushing her towards safety he nodded in the direction, Kagome realizing what he wanted her to do she ran and ducked down to stay out of the way. “Stay there” he mouthed to her. 

It was hard to keep up with their movements, each one moving in a blur but Kagome tried her best to follow them. Even though it was two on one the black-haired male held them off with a such skill and grace. But how long could he hold them off? She hoped that he would have some help soon because surely, he wouldn’t be able to keep up this pace for long. The sound of voices coming from behind her drew her attention abet briefly before turning it back to the fighting men. The two aggressors continued to gang up on the man in black and had managed to get in a few good hits, she could see the blood trickling down his right arm and a gash to his forehead was bleeding down his check. 

Kagome made the decision then and there, he needed help and that whoever was his backup wasn’t getting there quick enough! Eyes frantically scanning the area around them she saw the bow and quiver from earlier. It wasn’t too far from her and she would probably be able to make it to them without anyone noticing her movements. Carefully she moved from her kneeling position and tucked herself as low as she could running towards another piece of fallen pieces of building to hide behind that. She did this a few times noting that she was almost to goal, a she smiled knowing that she could grab the bow and be of some help! 

Inuyasha saw her movements out of the corner of his eye, a long deep growl can from him ‘I told her to stay there!’ but there she was trying to get closer to the damn fight ‘is she trying to get herself killed?!’ Trying to draw the attention of the two he was fighting away from the girl he managed to get them to both have their backs to whatever the hell she was doing. Their attacks against him were hard and fast, never letting up. There was no possible way these two were human but he couldn’t smell anything else on them. They just smelled like... grave soil. 

Both advancing towards Inuyasha one attacked him high while the other went for the kill. He was able to deflect Jakotsus who then jumped back and grinned at him licking his lips. Inuyasha was just about to move in time to avoid being stabbed through the gut by Bankotsu, but her scent was too close. His movement halted slightly and Bankotsu managed to slice through the side of Inuyashas vest and drag the blade across his side. 

Hissing he hunched slightly and grabbed the side with a free hand his blood pooling over it. Panting he took in his surrounding, he could hear Miroku and Sango calling him in his ear piece but he was a little too busy to have a conversation with them. He now stood between Bankotsu and Jakotsu the one started to giggle with glee at the sight of more blood on him. 

Kagome saw the blade slice open his side, she couldn’t help the gasp that came from her but she quickly threw her hand over her mouth and hoped that they didn’t hear her. She froze mid step and her eyes connected with the golden amber ones. They looked angry and worried all at the same time, they spoke to her without any words, she was the reason he got hurt, it was her fault. Guilt instantly hit her but what could she do at this point? If she went back to where she was, they would see her and she would have to fight empty handed or she could continue on her mission and help the now bleeding badly man. 

Inuyasha didn’t take his eyes off of her trying to figure out how to get the both of them out of this. By what Miroku and Sango were saying they were almost to his position so he just had to hold them off a little longer. The idea of killing both of the male atyackers was extremely appealing but then they wouldn’t be able to question them later. 

Bankotsu smiled at the hanyo holding his swords tip directly at him. “Had enough yet Mutt?” when Kagome caught his eye his smiled turned into a wicked grin “Jakotsu, finish this piece of shit off would you? I’m going to grab her” he motioned with his head towards her. “Do try to make it quick though, we’ve taken long enough.” 

Jakotsu licked his lips in anticipation “Fine.... it really is a shame I would be able to make you beg and cry out for me...” he eyed Inuyashas form when he licked some of the blood that had collected on the edge of his sword releasing a loud moan “you are very delicious...hey! Look at me when I am talking to you Half-breed!” Jakotsus irritated voice rang through Inuyashas ears, Jakotsu moved to place himself between Kagome and the Hanyo affectively blocking her from Inuyashas sight “I’m the one you should be looking at, not some scrawny bitch!” Jakotsu snarled. 

Kagome decided that she was going to go for the bow and she took a breath in now sprinting towards it she forced herself to leap as far as she could. She told herself ‘I can make it... I can make it’ over and over. Ignoring a sharp pain in her shoulder as she rolled and scooped up the bow and one arrow that had fallen out of the quiver. Continuing her roll until she was now up on one knee the other down bracing herself to notch the arrow. 

Inuyasha saw Bankotsu sheath his sword and charge in Kagomes direction. He went to intercept the man but was stopped by Jakotsu who was now swiping frantically at him with his sword. Inuyasha righted himself and jumped back a few paces to avoid the onslaught of attacks towards him. snarling he dug his back foot into the ground and stopped the sword coming at his head effectively blocking and slashing it out of the hands of Jakotsu landing a few feet from both of them. Seeming to get even more giddy Jakotsu attacked with his fists trying to land one across Inuyashas face or abdomen. 

Inuyasha was now the aggressor pushing Jakotsu back and landing hit after hit on him when he heard her scream. It was loud and panicked stopping him in his tracks he turned to go to her. Jakotsu noticing his lapse in attention and took the opportunity to finish off the half-demon. A swift kick to the stomach had Inuyasha flying into a wall, hitting with a loud sickening crash, he slumped to the ground head throbbing and body aching. 

Kagome watched in horror as Inuyasha hit the wall, “NO!!” She cried struggling against the masculine arms that held her tight. She wasn’t paying attention; her focus was on getting that damn bow when he had grabbed her from behind knocking the bow and arrow from her hands. She tried everything to get away from her captor but he was much stronger than she was and nothing she knew was helping to release her from his grip. 

“Now, now princess let’s not get too feisty.” Bankotsu purred in her ear “You’ll get me all wound up and I’ll have to take you right here and you wouldn’t want that now would you?” his voice low and seductive as he licked the shell of her ear and ground his hips into her back “or maybe you would?” 

“Let go of me you disgusting asshole!” Kagome yelled still trying to free herself ignoring the hardening bulge she could feel pressing into her backside. His one arm he had wrapped tightly around her upper body, the other pinning her arms to her sides. Being he was much taller than her she was barely toughing the ground with her feet so kicking him wasn't going to happen. 

Jakotsu laughed out loud at the fallen hanyo now slumped on the ground unmoving. “Looks like I may get to take a doggy bag home after all!” He clapped his hands and jumped a little before retrieving his sword from the ground and replacing it in its sheath. He strode over to the downed man and dragged him up off the ground by his hair. Holding him up in front of him Jakotsu was able to get a much closer look at Inyuasha features. “Oh, I'm so happy you showed up today, it's been so boring for me lately... only little reiki bitches! But you, yes I am going to have fun with you!” he purred. 

Head still throbbing Inuyasha glared and the man holding him lip pulling back in a snarl he was about to tell this freak to go to hell when they shifted slightly and he could smell fear, her fear. He watched as her captor licked her ear and his disgusting lust filled scent over took her. Inuyasha made to attack but his head was still throbbing and he became light headed and Jakotsu was able to maneuver him into hold with both arms pinned behind his back. 

“Come now, why not be a good boy hmmmm?” Jakutsu sing songed “guess I’ll just have to use a little more forceful methods to get you to cooperate!” With that his hand smacked a sutra on to Inuyashas chest. The Shock ran through Inuyashas body cause him to grunt in pain, his body going limp and he was unable to move anything but his head. “There, much better! Knew that would come in handy eventually” Jakotsu laughed now holding the immobile hanyo. 

Inuyasha ignored the man holding him and focused his eyes on the one holding Kagome. “Let her go now and maybe I won’t paint the ground with your insides...” furious at the way she was being held, the other man touching her and was clearly very aroused by her. It made him sick and he could see the fear in her eyes, gone was the calm, confident girl from moments ago. Now she was practically begging for someone to come help her and he couldn’t move! 

“Oh is that so half-breed? From where I am standing it looks more like Jakotsu will get to have his way with you and I am going to enjoy this pretty little thing before handing her over to our boss. Trust me she’ll be wishing she was back with me when he gets his hands on her!” taking a long drawn-out breath Bankotsu sighed “this one does smell amazing Mutt!” He nosed her hair away from her neck and licked the space visible on her shoulder, never once taking his eyes off the hanyo to gauge his reaction wanting to see how far he push the half-breed just by touching this girl. 

Bankotsu was not disappointed, he could feel the hanyos yokai coming forward much to Jakotsus displeasure he was about to whine at Bankotsu to stop teasing his play thing but was cut off before he could speak. 

“Mmmmm yep this one will be fun to break. Haven’t seen anyone with Reiki as pure as this one.” Bankotsu purred releasing his lower arm his hand caressed Kagomes stomach before slowly traveling down her abdomen and an achingly slow pace. 

Kagomes eyes went wide with how intimately he was going to touch her and there was nothing she could do about it. She was trapped, the police weren't coming, the man that was trying to help her was bleeding out it was all her fault because she didn’t stay where he told her to. He was badly hurt and she was being touched somewhere she did not want to be touched! Crystal blue eyes collided with deep brown that were wide, he was panting and enraged, he knew what this man was going to do to her and he couldn’t help her. 

No, she was not going to let this happen to her! Her father had taught her better then to roll over and take it. She felt something stir within her, something that bubbling to the surface that wanted to be set free. It was like a fire under her skin that was raging. She didn’t take her eyes off Inuyasha they stayed locked on his, it was as if time stopped around her, she would protect them both. She was going to put an end to this. 

“Get your hands off ME!” She cried out as a blinding pink shock wave exploded from her body. The blast causing Bankotsu to be thrown in to a wall and slump to the ground. Inuyasha watched eyes wide and he prepared to be hit by the wave of pure spiritual energy. Turning his head away just as it hit him it was like lightning striking his body. Jakotsu was ripped away and tossed to the ground, his motionless body laying limp on the ground a few yards away. Feeling coming back to his body he looked down on himself, the blast removing the sutra that was stuck to his chest. Gone were his yokai senses and power, leaving him nothing but human now he managed to push himself up on to trembling legs and fuck did that ever hurt. It had been sometime since he had been purified. 

Kagomes whole body shook, she was panting hard and stumbled a bit as she widened her stance to stay up right. She could feel her body starting to drain of whatever the hell it was she just unleashed around her. She saw Inuyasha get up from the ground and was staring at her in disbelief. she smiled his way, he was okay, she was okay and then her body let out. Collapsing in on herself she felt strong arms catching her before she hit the ground, the welcoming scent of forest and musk. Hearing him call out her name. Her vision was becoming blurrier as she tried to fight the onslaught of exhaustion. She took in his face, and could feel his hand cupping her cheek as he called to her again and again begging her to stay with him, to stay awake. There were other voices now but she could understand them, they seemed far away or like there was cotton in her ears. She looked at the man who held her and held his eyes “you’re....okay....” she managed to breath out before giving in and allowing sleep to take her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Inuyasha or any of the charater


	4. A Whole New World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagome wakes up in a strange new place and learns there is a whole lot more to this world then she ever knew.

“How long will she be like this?” 

“I cannot say, she could wake up today, maybe tomorrow. Her body needs time to rest.” 

“Well, what’s wrong with her?” 

“Nothing is wrong with her; she just needs rest.” 

Darkness, that’s all she saw. No matter how hard she tried she couldn’t wake, couldn’t open her eyes and could not move. Her body felt like a huge weight rested on top of her preventing even the slightest of movements. Every now and then she could hear the voices around her but she could never respond and it frustrated her to know end. Then steady quiet beep of what she guessed was an IV pump at her side would lull her back into the nothingness. 

How long has she been like this she would wonder, was it a few hours, days, maybe a week? She had no idea. During moments of wakefulness, she would try as hard as she could to open her eyes and fight against the darkness in her mind, but nothing would come of it and a smooth calming voice would tell her to rest allowing the darkness would overtake her once again. 

Something was different today, a tapping noise drew her out of the darkness, she tried to keep her excitement down to a low, but it kept going, a steady tap, tap, tap that wasn’t there before. Slowly her eye lids started to flutter open allowing the bright lights above to sting her unused eyes. Blinking rapidly to remove the tears that had formed she tried to raise a hand to wipe them but her arms felt like they were lined with lead. Still hearing the tapping noise, she slowly tried to turn her head towards it to see who or what had made the noise that finally woke her up. 

Blinking slowly a few more times a woman with long brown hair came into her line of sight. She had her hair pulled back into a high pony tail, violet eye shadow rimming her eyes, she looked a little older than herself and dressed in plan black tank top with a pair of black shorts. The tapping noise from her pen that she was ideally tapped against the book she seemed to be engrossed in not even noticing the girl across from her. She was sitting in a small chair with one leg propped up, her book up against it while the other leg hung down from the chair swinging slightly. 

Slowly turning her head back Kagome took in her surroundings. She was in some sort of large hospital room but not like one she had been in before. This room was filled with top-of-the-line medical equipment that most hospitals would only dream of owning. To her left the quiet beep of the IV drip slowly dripping down the line she noticed two other unoccupied beds. Everything mostly white including the bedding that was pulled up around her. Slowly she tried to wiggle her fingers, the sensation of pins and needles setting in all over her body. 

Kagome moved her gaze back over to the woman reading the book on her right side, and tried to say hello to her but her throat was so dry that it only came out as a hoarse whisper followed by a slight cough. Swallowing she tried to moisten her throat a bit but her mouth was incredibly dry and it didn’t do a thing. The womans attention startled at the noise that came from Kagome and she ended up dropping her book and pen. 

“Well good morning sunshine!” She said to Kagome with a smile on her face “We were wondering when you would be waking up, it's been about 3 days!” 

‘Three days...’ Kagome thought blinking again, this time she was able to slowly bring her right hand to her face and wipe at her eyes. her mouth and throat still overly dry “Wat....Ple...” were all Kagome could choke out trying to ask from something to drink. 

“OH!! I bet you are thirsty!” the other woman jumped up from her chair and made her way across the room. Kagome followed her movements and notice a small kitchenette area towards the end of the bed she was in as well and the large glass door that led to a hallway just beyond. The woman making her way back over to Kagome with a smile on her face and a small glass of water in her hand. She pushed a few buttons on the side of Kagomes bed and it started to sit her up a touch more. 

“I figured it would be easier for you to drink this if you were sitting up” She smiled again “My name is Sango, it's nice to finally meet you, we’ve been taking turns keeping watch over you since you came in.” She handed the cup of water over to Kagome but it was difficult for her to hold on to let alone bring it to her mouth to drink. 

“Why don’t I give you a hand with that hm?” Sango suggested and Kagome could only smile in reply. Sango took the glass again and brought it up to Kagomes lips, the water was cool and felt amazing as it washed down her throat. Drinking back the whole glass she heard Sango chuckle. “Yep, you were definitely thirsty!” still chuckling a little Sango took her seat again. 

“Thank you...” Kagome managed to croak out while laying he head back against the pillow again. “I’m....Kago...” more coughing came as she tried to talk to Sango but her throat was still touch dry and no use. 

“Kagome, yes we know your name...” Sango started but stop mid-sentence looking like she wanted to think about how she took the conversation but stopped herself as she sat back down. 

“Where am I?” Kagome asked looking around the room again. 

“A hospital.” Sango shurgged. 

“I gathered that, which hospital?” Kagome leveled Sango with an unimpressed looked. 

“Our hospital, ah, a private hospital.” 

“A private hospital?!” Kagome panicked, there was no way she or her family could afford to be paying for a private hospital. 

“whoa, calm down, don’t worry about the costs. It's already been taken care of.” Sango soothed. 

“Taken care of? By who?” Kagome sat up quickly and felt the room start to spin, she grabbed on to the side of the bed to steady herself and closed her eyes feeling Sango also holding on to her to balance herself. 

“Easy there sparky, you probably aren't back to yourself yet. You drained yourself pretty good out there.” Sango still held on to Kagomes arm until she was sure that Kagone would fall out of the bed “and it doesn’t matter right now who is taking care of the bills what is important is getting you fixed up, okay?” 

“Easy for you to say!” Kagome pouted then thought about what this other woman had said, she was in a private, very expensive looking hospital, that someone was paying for and she had been there for three days.... “wait.... you said I have been here for three days!?” she shrieked causing Sango to scootch back in her chair. “Does my family know where I am? Have they been to see me? Oh my god they must be so worried! What did you even tell them? What even happened? And why was I brought to this hospital, surely a run of the mill normal hospital would be fine!? And what the hell was that shiny pink thing that surrounded us and stopped bullets, HOW is that even possible?!” Kagome started firing off questions to fast for Sango to even answer. Instead, she simply chuckled at the clearly distort girl in the bed. 

“breath...one at a time!” Sango chuckled again “Yes your family knows where you are, we notified them as soon as you were brought in. They know that you were involved in the attack on the university and you were brough here to take care of your injuries and...” she paused looking down at her hands clasped in her lap. 

“And??” Kagome looked at her expectantly she also got the feeling that Sango was selectively answering certain questions and not others. 

“Our team leader insisted on bringing you here after what happened, we assumed you two knew each other since he knew your name.” Sango looked back up at Kagome with raised eye brows. 

“Knew my name?” Kagome whispered now really confused and looked up at the ceiling taking in a deep breath. She started to try and remember what was the last thing she remembered. She remembered sitting with her friends doing their assignment. Then everything came spiraling back, the explosions, the two men trying to kidnap Ayumi and two others. The other man who came with the long black hair, the name on his vest popping out in the memory. They had been shot at and they were both attacked, the guy more than her. She saw the blood all over him, dripping from his side, face, arms it was everywhere. Kagome replayed everything she could remember to Sango who just sat there and listened. 

“The guy, um, Takahashi? I think.... Is he okay?” the guilt she had felt when he had gotten hurt was there again “it was my fault he got hurt, I should have listened to him and stayed where he told me to.” Kagome whispered. 

“His name is Inuyasha Takahashi and he is totally fine it's kind of normal for him to look like that honestly its part of what we do and He heals really quickly.” Sango shrugged and laughed. 

“Normal? How is this Normal? Explosions, kidnapping, weird sparkly wall things that stop bullets, guys running around with swords, getting beat to a pulp, that’s all normal?” Kagome was shocked but then took a better look at Sango “wait, you were there too!” she pointed a finger at Sango. 

“Yes, my whole team was there” Sango nodded “Inuyasha our team leader, Miroku and I. And yes, its normal but it usually it isn't that bad. We come out with scrapes and bruise most of the time.” Sango looked down at her hands still holding the glass and swirled it around again “remember anything else?” Her brown eyes locking with Kagomes blue ones. 

Kagome was having a hard to understand how this girl beside her could be so nonchalant about everything that happened. She took in a steadying breath trying to calm herself down and continued with what she remembered “After I saw how hurt I-Inuyasha was, I felt horrible, I should have just stayed where he told me too but I couldn’t! He was fighting so hard but it was two against one and even though he was doing amazingly, I wanted to help...” Kagome shrugged. 

Sango nodded in agreement “I know what that’s like” she reached up and gave Kagomes hands a small squeeze. 

“After that, it's all a little foggy. The one man, he grabbed me and then....” She sighed and looked down to her lap “I’m sorry I don’t really know what happened after that.” 

Sango nodded again and smiled a warm comforting smile towards her “It's alright, I’m sure it will come back eventually. I was just wanting to put together the pieces, Inuyasha has told us his account but it's nice to have another. My husband Miroku and I were cut off when the last explosion went off.” Sango released Kagomes hand and stood up to stretch “I bet you must be hungry; you’ve been out for a while! How about I find you something to eat and get you some more water yeah?” 

“More water would be wonderful and I am a touch hungry now that you mention it.” just as Kagome finished her stomach made a rumbling noise as if to agree with what she said and the both laughed. 

“I’ll see what I can get for you to eat, though I should probably talk to Kaede first to see what you are allowed to have and maybe get you something for your head, I bet its pounding” she offered a small smile of assurance before standing up and walking to the kitchenette to refill the glass for Kagome. Once she returned to the bedside, she pulled a small shelf from the wall and set the glass down “Do you think you will need help with this one or do you think you can manage?” 

“No, I should be okay now. Feeling like I am getting a bit of my strength back, thank you though” Kagome smiled up at Sango before reaching for the glass and taking a few small sips then setting the glass back down and looked around “wow, everything in here is so...” 

“Top of the line? Expensive? You can thank our director for that. She always wants the top of the line everything. Now Kaede, she prefers old school methods and hardly touches this stuff” Sango gestured around the room and let out a sarcastic laugh. 

“Hey Sango, can I speak to my family?” Kagome asked “they must be so worried.” 

“I’ll see what I can do. You won’t be alone long, okay?” Sango gave her a quick smile and left Kagome alone. 

Kagome let out a sigh, she doubted her mother would be very unhappy about being kept away, she would have fought tooth and nail to see her but it was becoming clearer that she wasn’t in a regular hospital. Kagome train of thought trailed off, she bunched her hands in her lap, picking at a small piece of thread that was coming loose on the blanket. 

Letting out a huff of breath she let her head fall back against the pillow again and closed her eyes, her head was starting to feel less foggy, the pounding had receded a bit but her body still felt like a huge weighted blanket was on top of her and every movement took more effort than she had the energy for. Turning her head, she watched the IV drip beside her slowly dripping away. She had so many questions and not nearly enough answers. As soon as she was out of this bed though she planned on getting every single one of them answered. 

*** 

“The child apperars to have a very strong binding spell on her.” The older woman's voice was gravely but smooth as she addresses the people around her. Inuyasha, Miroku and Kikyo all sat around the briefing room table along discussing the attack on the university before Kaede was inviting in to speak about what she had learned about their female visitor. 

“The Spell itself is in a small talisman that she wears around her neck” she placed a picture of the talisman in front of the other three for them to inspect before continuing “I tried to extend my own reiki into it to see if I could release the binding, however it just repelled my efforts.” Kaede sighed looking to the others to hear what they have to say while quietly taking a sip of her tea. 

Miroku took the photo and looked at it closely before placing it back down on the table and pushing it the opposite side for Inuyasha to have a look at. 

“If she could expel that much spiritual energy while being bound, she would have to be one of, if not the strongest spiritual users we have seen in a very long time.” Miroku said more to himself then the others in the room. “But who would have put such a binding on her? Why hide that power away?” 

“Keh, because people would want to use it for their own benefit, because her life would never be her own. Honestly Monk you think the Collective would have let her live with her family and have her own life? Human, youkai they would have all wanted a piece!” Inuyasha said keeping his voice as level as he could. 

“Aye, and if she contiunes to use her power over the binding it could be a lot worse than just a few days of sleeping” Kaede added cryptically. 

“Perhaps it's because she could not control it” Kikyo shot out sarcastically. 

“All the more reason to keep her here for the time being” Miroku said ignoring the indignant huff that Kikyo let out. 

“Why on earth should we keep her here? She shouldn’t even be here to begin with. The Collective has made it abundantly clear they want her brought before the council when she wakes up. Though I don’t understand why, she is not part of this team or even a registered spiritualist. Let the Collective deal with her, then I say we just let her go off in to her little life and carry on with what we are doing.” 

“She ain’t an animal you can release into the wild Kikyo...” Inuyasha grunted “and incase ya didn’t notice, the bastards that were trying to kidnap members of Counselor Yamamoto family had a front row seat to her light show and changed their target to her!” he snapped sitting up straight in his chair leveled her with a glare. 

“I agree with Inuyasha and Miroku” Kaede added while placing her tea cup down on the table “keeping her here will not only allow us to keep her safe but also try and help her find out why she has this binding if she doesn’t already know. With three well versed reiki users I am sure we will be able to help her and make sure her powers d not rise again with the talisman still on.” 

“Two spiritual users” kikyo corrected “I will have no part in helping her...” Kikyo paused taping one of her well-manicured fingers on her chin “Inuyasha, if you truly think they will see her as a target, we could send her out? See if they come after her again?” she said smugly. 

“You want to use her as bait?” Miroku couldn’t believe what he was hearing openly gasping at the idea. 

“Like fuck we will! What the hell Kikyo?” Inuyasha stood up from his chair slammed his fist down on the table making Kaedes tea cup clatter. 

“Oh, Inuyasha please, it's not like we wouldn’t be keeping an eye on her! I have already sent for the other team to come in. They can watch her.” Kikyo said dismissively and waved him off with one of her hands “then this case will be over and done with and we can move one!” she added cheerfully though it was forced and fake. 

“Keh, it ain’t happening! You think I'm gonna let you use her as bait and let the other team look out for her?!” Inuyasha hissed through clenched teeth his anger rising at even the thought of Kagome being used in such a way. 

“What does it matter to you Inuyasha? Kikyo demanded “She’s just some civilian that happens to have powers!” she didn’t seem to like the fact that Inuyasha was remotely invested in this tiny skiff of a girl that should have never entered this building. 

Sango opened the door and froze taking in the emotions in the room. Making eye contact with Miroku he nodded to the chair beside him and she quickly scooted over to take it. 

“What did I miss?” she whispered towards him. 

“Nothing!” Inuyasha spat “you missed nothing because it ain’t going to happen!” he sat down in his chair again with one last glare in Kikyos direction. 

Sango held her hands up in an appeasing manor hoping to calm their hanyou leader down. She wasn’t there to fight him on anything, she knew he knew that but when he was riled up like this it was hard to get through that thick head of his. 

“Kikyo thought that since it appeared the perpetrators had switched interest to Kagome, that it would be a good idea to use her as bait” Miroku summarized off handily “though the rest of us in the room are against as such idea...” he looked to Kaede and Inuyasha for confirmation of what he had said and the both nodded in agreeance. 

“Damn right we ain’t using her as bait!” Inuyasha added his tone still harsh and biting. 

“I would have to agree with all of you as well, using her as bait would only put her in another dangerous situation and I am pretty sure she wouldn’t want to go through that again.” Sango added focusing her attention to Kikyo who sat at the head of the table she just shook her head in disbelief that Kikyo would even suggest such a thing. Long gone was the Kikyo they used to know, now sat a shell of the woman she was only interested in her position and could care less about everyone else as long as she got what she wanted. Sango let out a sigh, clearly this meeting needed to come to an end and Miroku and Sango needed to play janken to see who got to spar with Inuyasha first. 

“Kagome is awake. I told her you would be coming down to see her Kaede” Sango smiled to the older woman and nodded to the door with her head. Kaede didn’t like the tension any more the her or Miroku. 

“I will take my leave then...” Kaede hesitated as got up and gathered her belongings “do keep me informed about what is decided here.” She pointed looked to Inuyasha and not in Kikyos direction. Moving towards the door she stopped by Inuyashas side placing a gentle hand on his shoulder she patted it a few times which caused him to relax slightly. He looked up to her and she smiled at him before continuing out the door and was gone. 

“Inuyasha” Kikyous voice drew him back to the others at the table, having watch Kaede leave the room “I want an answer to my question!” she challenged. 

“oh yeah, and what question is that?” Inuyasha knew what she wanted and he wasn’t going to give it to her, it was none of her business, hell he didn’t plan on telling anyone what Kagome was to him, not even her. 

“How do you even know this girl? You seem to have a vested interest in this girl's well-being. I want to know why?” 

“There ain’t any interest there and even if there were, it’d be none of your god damn business!” He almost laughed at the look on her face when she wasn’t getting what she wanted. 

Sango and Miroku sat there knowing to stay out of it, if their friend wanted to tell them anything he would. 

“Well it is hindering the case, so yes, it is my business! We could wrap this up and be done with it but you are blocking my efforts!” Kikyo spat back standing and slamming her hands to her hips trying to make herself look like she was towering over him. 

“Ya, ain’t gonna happen Kikyo. You try anything with Kagome and you’re gonna have me to deal with.” Inuyasha planted his hands on the table and stood slowly from his chair to his full height to prove just who was the alpha around here. Kikyo may have the title of director now but they all knew he was really in charge, they followed what he said not Kikyo. 

“Same goes for me!” Sango stood 

“For me as well.” Miroku added 

Inuyashas lip raised in a one-sided smirk and a small glint of fang poked out from it. “Guess you’re over ruled here Kikyo.” 

“I think it would be best if the three of you remembered who is in charge of this team and the building!” Kikyo stopped a foot like a child having a temper tantrum. 

“Oh, I think we know very well who is the Alpha around here!” Sangos tone grew harsh and challenging. She had been waiting for the opportunity to lay into Kikyo for a while now and if she was going up the chance to do it, Sango would gladly leap at it! 

Kikyo huffed and straighten out her posture “Since the girl is awake, I will inform The Collective.” with that she stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind her. 

Miroku sighed and rubbed his face with his hands “I need a vacation.” 

“Me too...” Sango agreed and place her hand on his back rubbing small circles in comfort. 

“I’m....I’m sorry things are the way they are lately guys. I, uh...” Inuyasha rubbed the back of his neck with his hand feeling bad that he let the room get that heated and him inability to hold his temper. Sango and Miroku were his family. He had thought Kikyo had been as well, but as it turned out she was only using him and his team to get to where she wanted to and ever since she had gotten that she had cast them away, cast him away. 

“not to worry my friend, you know where our loyalties lie.” Miroku soothed “but once this case is done, I am taking Sango and we are going something nice!” Miroku laughed. 

“It is long overdue if you ask me” She added and smiled at Miroku. 

“Maybe I will go somewhere too...” Inuyasha pondered to himself. 

“Perhaps you could take the lovely Lady Kagome with you!” Miroku suggested with a teasing tone to his voice. 

“W-what!?” Inuyasha gasped out fighting the blush that threatened to run across his face. 

“Miroku, don’t tease him!” Sango scolded. 

“I am simply offering a suggestion based on what I have seen” Miroku defended himself . 

“You ain’t seen shit Monk!” Inuyasha huffed while crossing his arms over his chest and turned his nose up at his two friends. 

“Well that’s big fat lie and you know it” Sango said smugly “you have barely left her side and we couldn’t even get near the two of you at the scene, so don’t give us that crap Inuyasha! We know you better then yourself sometimes!” Sango laughed, she didn’t want to get in to this right now but seeing the blush creep over their leader and him trying to brush it off was too good to turn down. 

“My beautiful wife is correct, you have been... attentive... we shall say” Miroku was full on smiling now knowing that Sango was also involved in cornering Inuyasha and teasing him. 

Sighing, Inuyasha scrubbed his hand down his face “look, there ain’t nothing going on alright! I just...” he paused “I felt bad for her having to go through that...” he lied hoping that would get them off his case. 

“You are a terrible liar Inuyasha” Sango said soothingly “we are here if you need us, always, you know that right?” 

“keh, I know that.” he said quietly. 

“Why don’t you go and see her before we start up training? She’s pretty confused and I can only answer so much.” Sango suggested. 

“Keh” was all they got from the hanyou before he moved away from the table and made his way out of the room, closing the door quietly. 

*** 

Kagome heard the glass door slid open to the large hospital room she was laying in, taking her attention off the IV Drip she was still watching she moved her head towards the door. An older woman walked in who reminded her of her late grandmother. She was a short woman, wearing a pair of red scurb pants and a white top with her salt and pepper hair tied back into a simple pony tail. It warmed her heart a little and just her presence seemed to sooth her in that maternal kind of way. She smiled at the woman who was coming in to greet her. 

“It’s good to see you awake child; we didn’t know how long you would be out for.” The older woman smiled back “how are you feeling?” she asked while she checked on Kagomes IV drip and her pupil dilation. 

“I’m feeling a bit better than before, still a bit tired though. “ 

“Aye, that will happen when you use that much reiki at one time! My name is Kaede.” Kaede nodded of handily while checking Kagomes pulse. 

“Reiki?..... wait.... Kaede? Dr. Kaede Yoshida?” Kagome gasped completely forgetting her first question. 

The old woman chuckled at that but continued on with what she was doing. “Aye that is me, would you like some tea? Hungry? ” she asked pleasantly as she made her way over to the kitchenette to put the kettle on. 

“Um yes thank you, Kaede!” Kagome perked up at the mention of food, she hadn't really noticed but she was actually very hungry, her stomach rumbling as if to prove it to her. 

Kaede set the kettle one and laughed a little at the sound of Kagomes stomach. “I will see what I can get for you, the others tend not to cook or keep anything of substance around here. I am sure I have some homemade soup though in my apartment. I won't be too far, it's just up the hall.” With that Kaede made her way out the door and down the hall in the opposite direction that Sango went. 

Kaede was true to her word and was back just as the kettle started to whistle. Going about the kitchenette she pulled out two cups and a tea pot. Sprinkling something from a mason jar into a small tea leaf diffuser she plopped it into the tea pot and poured the hot water into it. Kagome sat quietly watching her go about, she was graceful in her movements despite her age and it made Kagome think of her grandmother again. 

Settling down in the chair to Kagomes right she placed a tray with the tea cups and tea pot as well as a bowl of a delicious smelling soup. Kaedes delicate hands poured some of the tea into cups and pushed one towards Kagome. 

“This is a special blend I make; it helps to restore your strength and powers. The soup is an old family recipe.” Kaede explained. 

Taking her own tea cup Kaede sat back into her chair and took a sip of her tea as she watched Kagome eat the soup. 

“So you have heard my name before child?” Kaede asked sipping her own tea. 

“Heard of you? I have read all your books and been to many of your lectures!” Kagome said excitedly “You are the one of the main reasons I got into Nursing in the first place and why I am majoring in Herbology and natual healing practices!” 

Kaede laughed softly at the excited girl before her “Well, it is good to know that I am leaving such a legacy and have a fan clud!” She smiled but then became more serious taking a minute before she spoke again. “Tell me child, who gave you that talisman you wear around your neck?” Kaede placed her tea down and looked to Kagome. 

“Talismen? OH, you mean my necklace?” Kagome questioned while pulling it out from her hospital gown “My father gave this to me when I was little. It's was the last thing he gave me before he was in the car accident.” She sighed not really wanting to go into those past memories “made me promise to never take it off, so I haven’t” she shrugged. 

“And the chain has never broken, even though you have worn it for many years?” Kaede questioned again a brown raising as she did. 

“I never thought of that, no it has never broken.” Kagome wrapped the thin gold chain around a finger and fiddled with the red rectangular jewel the chain held rubbing her thumb over the smooth surface a bit before looking back at over to Kaede. 

“That little trinket your father gave you has a spell on it that binds your powers.” Kaede informed “though why he would do that I do not know. Having spiritual powers is a gift and from what I have seen your powers are strong and pure.” 

“Powers? What do you mean by powers?” Kagome questioned “what...?” 

Kaede sighed sensing this would be a long conversation that would have to be had but chose to give a summarized version “Aye Powers, Spiritual ones. I cannot answer the questions as to why yours were bound but I’m sure the time for answers will come. It is apparent to me that you family has knowledge of the spiritual and yokai world but has kept it from you for a specific reason. As for your power to rise the way they did with the binding in place...” Kaede paused “I would be interested to see what they are like with it off.” 

Kagome thought about what Kaede was saying “So you are saying that I have these magical powers that my family locked away and that everything my grandfather rambles on about is actual real and not made up...” She let out a disbelieving laugh. “Forgive me if I do not believe you Kaede.” 

“Have you ever tried to take it off Kagome?” Kaede asked simply as if to prove a point picking up her tea cup again and taking a sip. 

“Honestly no I haven’t, most of the time I forget it’s there” Kagome explained “Would you like me to take it off?” she questioned, though the thought of betraying her promise to her father stung deep down. She trusted Kaede and knew that she wouldn’t do anything to harm her and really, she wanted to just prove that it was just a necklace and there was nothing magical about it. 

“Aye, just for fun.” Kaede smirked over her tea cup finishing her tea and stood up again to gather all the dishes and take them over to the sink to wash later. The older woman then returned to the chair at Kagomes side and waited for the girl to attempt to take the necklace off. 

“Okay then” Kagome huffed and reached behind her neck to find the clasp to take the necklace off. Pulling the chain, she brought the clasp to the front so she could see it fiddled with it a few times “It must be locked up, because the clasp won’t even open!” Kagome tried a few more times. 

“Perhaps try breaking the chain?” Kaede suppled and before Kagome could protest, she assured her she would have it fix should the girl actually break the chain. 

“Fine” Kagome pouted and pulled with all her might on the thin chain that would easily have been snapped but nothing happened. She tried a long hard pull, short choppy pulls but nothing would snap the chain. “Maybe it's just really well made!” Kagome finally gave up. 

“Or perhaps it is as I say and it has been created with great power.” Kaede said smuggle which only made Kagome deflate a bit. 

“If that’s the case, why hide it from me? None of this makes any sense.” 

“All things will be answered in time, for now, just stay in bed, your body needs time to recover. I have some things to attend to but will come back to check on you in a little while.” Kaede said while patting Kagomes leg and standing up. 

Kagome watched as the older woman disappeared out the glass door way and out the hall out of sight. Alone again Kagome sighed, looking around the room. She felt much better now that she had something to eat and the tea had really help her feel more energized. She picked at the little sting on her blanket again and let out another sigh. She really wasn’t one for sitting around and doing nothing, always moving, always doing something unless she was sleeping. Letting out a groan Kagome made the decision to just get up and walk around the room to stretch her legs, no harm there right? She would be near her bed and if she needed, she could just crawl back in. 

Pulling the covers back off her leg she stretches them out on the bed first, wiggling her toes to make sure that they were indeed awake. She looked down at the hospital gown she was wearing it was a short breathable cotton, much nicer than any of the hospital gowns she had seen before. But she thought back to what Sango had said, whoever runs this place likes the best of the best. Sitting up a bit to make sure the gown was done up in the back she was surprised to find it was a full back gown. ‘No need to worry about flashing anyone’ she thought and smiled though it was short lived as she remembered she was alone. 

Swinging her legs to the side of the bed she had only a moment of thinking she shouldn’t be doing this bed she pushed off and her feet hit the ground softly and moved away from the support of the bed. Kagome was pleasantly surprised that she didn’t feel dizzy or tired and started to take a few steps to walk around the room. After about the fourth lap she stop and decided to do up the dishes Kaede had left in the sink. 

“Ugh” Kagome groaned, the dished only taking a few minutes of her time. She made all three beds and tried to find something else to do but was at a loss. Looking over towards the glass doors she knew Kaede had said to stay in bed but what harm was there in peaking her head out to see what was in the hallway? Shrugging to herself she walked over to the glass door and it slide open. She stuck her head out and looked both ways up and down the hallway. She could make some voices coming from the one direction, bouncing on the balls of her feet she stepped out into the hallway and tip toed in the direction the voiced were coming from. 

*** 

They had only started their training and Sango was already panting, she had lost the game of janken with Miroku for who would go first and Inuyashas attacks were fast and unrelenting. Everything calculated but not predictable. Sango knew he was beating himself up over not having the upper hand during the attacks but she wasn’t one to back down from a fight though and if he wanted to really go at it today, she was not going to shy away from the challenge. It was good for both of them, she got a good spar in and he would blow off the pent-up frustrations. 

A swift leg sweep she didn’t see coming from Inuyasha had her tumbling to her back only to look up and see the hanyou still coming for her he leapt into the air to bring his knee down onto her but she rolled away before he could make contact and Sango countered with a low round house aimed to at his head. Inuyasha dodged blocked her leg easily and forced it back the pair jumping back up to their feet and getting back into their fighting stances. <

Breathing heavily, Sango decided it was her turn to be the aggressor and rushed forward to with a combination of punches and kick all which Inuyasha just blocked and move aside for ‘he’s playing with me’ Sango thought and grinned. “Don’t get cocky Inuyasha, it will come back and bite you in the ass!” she teased. 

“Keh, you’re just so slow I can tell what your gonna do next!” Inuyasha mocked. 

Miroku simply stood to the side watching the two go back and forth with each other. He also knew this was good for them but was glad it was Sango and not himself, he had his ass handed to him in his last spar with Inuyasha. He was hopeful by the time they were done they would both have it out of their systems and they could just move on with other training they had to do. 

*** 

Kagome quietly made her way down the hallway and walked out into a large room a quick glace she saw the sound of the voices. Sango from earlier and a silver haired man were in what looked to be a very serious sparring match on a raised dojo floor. With another man simply standing to the side watching with his hands propping him up on the ledge of the raised floor. 

She was couldn’t take her eyes off of the pair sparring, it was almost like watching a dance. She had been around Sparring her whole life. Her father teaching her and her brother since they were very young. It was part of what they did at the shrine, they also offered classes to the anyone in the neighborhood who wanted to join in. it was one of her jobs at the shrine on the weekends was to teach the classes with her brother. Continuing to watch the pair she suddenly stopped herself and focused on the male ‘Are those.... dog ears?’ she shook her head, there was no way he had dog ears, cute fuzzy little white dog ears! 

She leaned herself against the entrance way not really wanting to go further bit really wanted to get a better look at the man. Another thought jumped in to her head ‘some of the kids would love to see this match I bet, Souta would be going nuts’ she smiled to herself containing the giggle she wanted to let out thinking about how Souta would be reacting. 

“Ummm, what are you doing?” A voice pulled her out of her musings and drew her attention to a desk littered with computer screens and various other objects. A young teenager blinked up at her, think he must be no older than Souta. 

“I- uhhh – Hi!” Kagome let out lamely and she quickly waved awkwardly trying to brush off the fact that she was supposed to be in her bed and not sneaking around a building that she wasn’t supposed to know anything about! 

“Yea, Hi...” the red head said as he stood up from his desk chair “pretty sure you aren’t supposed to be out here, you know?” his tone was hushed like he was trying to keep her presence a secret. 

Taking in the teenagers appearance Kagome noticed his ears first, then quickly glancing down she saw what was behind him “you...... you have a tail!” She whispered trying to keep her shock down and not alert anyone else to her being out and about. Looking him up and down again she noticed he had on a t-shirt with Soutas favorite the band logo on it and a pair of green shorts but her eye quickly flicked back to his tail and then back to his face. 

“Uh yeah, I’m a Kinsune... Fox yokai... Kinda born with it.” he turned towards her a bit and his tail moved side to side to show her it was indeed attached and real. 

Getting over her initial shock Kagome watched as the tail went back and forth a few times before she broke out in a huge smile “That is the cutest thing I have ever seen!!” she whisper squealed, rocking up and down on her feet she clapped her hands together! 

“You were really living under a rock huh!?” the boy rolled his eyes and popping a sucker back in his mouth that Kagome hadn't notice he was holding. “Aren’t you supposed to stay in bed?” He managed to say around the sucker sitting back down in his chair and rolling it back to his desk. 

“I know I’m sorry, I got to bored in my room I couldn’t stand it anymore! I’m Kagome” she quickly rushed out in a whispered tone. 

“Shippo” he said shooting a quick glance over to the other three in the room before looking back at Kagome. 

“It’s nice to meet you Shippo!” Kagome said cheerfully though still keeping her voice down. She held her hand out for the boy to shake. 

“You’d better get back to your room, I’m sure those three wouldn’t care about you wandering around but the Ice Queen, she’ll freak out!” Shippo said as he glanced around quickly grabbing her hand and shaking it. 

“Ice queen?” Kagome asked wondering if there was actually someone made of Ice. ‘there's a fox boy in front of you why wouldn’t you think there would be someone made of ice’ she scolded herself mentally. 

A loud curse that could be heard and a groan followed by a string of apologies made both of them jump and the both looked over to the dojo mats. 

“Oh boy, that’s not good...” Shippo grimaced and then he started to laugh but put his hand over his mouth to muffle the sound, his body still shaking from the laughing. Kagome turned back over to dojo mats in the center of the room noticing that the silver haired male was down on the ground, Sango looked to be apologizing profusely. She took off in a run towards the other three people before she knw what she was doing. 

“Hey! Wait!” Shippo called out to her. 

*** 

Her scent had caught his attention and for a split second he looked in her direction. 

“Fuck” 

“I’m sorry Inuyasha!” Sango said quickly kneeling down beside him on the mat surface. 

“It’s fine Sango” he replied while wiping a small amount of blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand “That was a good hit...” he chuckled a bit as he pushed himself into a seated position leaning back on one arm. 

Miroku had joined them up on the mats now and kneeled down beside his friend as well “well, that was very unlike you to lose focus like that, or perhaps you are losing you edge, getting old and slow?” 

“Keh, I can take a lot more than that and you know it!” Inuyasha pushed Miroku in the shoulder causing him to almost loose his balance while the both laughed a bit. Making to get up Inuyasha froze his movements causing Miroku to look at him in confusion “Inuyasha?” 

“Are you Okay??” a concerned female voice asked behind Miroku. Sango and Miroku both turned in the direction of the voice and saw Kagome standing at the side of the training mat floor her attention completely on Inuyasha. The pair then looked back to Inuyasha who was seemed to be very interested in the floor and looked like he had no plans on answering Kagomes question. 

Miroku cleared his throat and stood from his kneeling position to moved towards Sango who was just looking at him in question. He simply shrugged his sholders as Kagome jumped up onto the raised floor and took over his spot beside Inuyasha. Sango noticed how tense the hanyou became the moment Kagome got closer to him. 

Kagome reached to touch Inuyasha face but he smacked it away “I’m fine!” he growled out and stood immediately to get some distance between them and turning away from her. 

“You’re bleeding, bleeding usually doesn’t mean fine!” Kagome stood to and scooted around so she was standing face him again her hands on her hips with a determined look on her face. 

“I ain’t no weak ass human wench, I’m fine!” he glared down at her, he was a good head taller than her and whole lot broader. 

Kagome stood there stunned at the way he was speaking to her, the memories of the jerk she bumped into coming back and the name wench echoed in her head “it's you!” she accused “you're the jerk that I ran in to the other day!” She looked over to Sango and Miroku “Is he always such an Ass?” 

Miroku and Sango stood looking back and forth between Inuyasha and Kagome both looking equally confused. Miroku couldn’t help the laughter that escaped his mouth but Sango elbowed him in the stomach causing him to buckle over and gasp slightly. 

“Well, he is usually a little standoffish, haven’t heard anyone call him an ass in a while though!” Sango stated though it was clear she was holding back her own laughter. 

“Hey!” Inuyasha looked insulted “Thanks a lot Sango...” 

Sango simply shrugged and looked to Kagome “Kagome this is Miroku, my husband and clearly you have already met the charming Inuyasha.” she motioned with her hand to Miroku who was standing upright again rubbing his stomach where he had been elbowed. 

“It is a pleasure to meet you Lady Kagome!” Miroku added and reached a hand forward to take her hand in his which Kagome took and gave a little bow. 

“It's nice to meet you too, Sango mentioned you earlier.” She smiled and let go of Mirokus hand. 

Sango continued to watch Inuyasha through the greeting. He had distanced himself from the group slightly and she sure she could hear a low growl coming from the hanyo. 

“You will have to forgive my friend, It's not often we have guests here!” Miroku gestured around him and continued “though I doubt a tour of the building is in order.” 

“Damn right it's not, she shouldn’t even be out here!” Inuyasha added though there wasn’t much bite to his comment. He was looking over his shoulder in the direction of Kikyos office. 

Kagome shivered slightly and wrapped her arms around herself “I know I shouldn’t be out here. I apologize but it is rather boring just sitting around in the hospital room.” it was her turn to shrug as she rubbed her hands up and down her arms. She remembered that she was walking around in a little hospital gown, also not one of her brightest ideas. 

Inuyasha noticed her shiver and instinctively moved closer to her before he caught himself. Sango and Miroku both caught his movement too and looked to each other. He simply brought his hand up and rubbed the back of his neck to play it off. 

“Sango my dear, why don’t you take Kagome up to our room? See if maybe there is something for her to wear.” 

“And I bet you would love to have a nice warm shower or bath too!” Sango added cheerfully. 

Perking up and smiling at the thought of a bath Kagome rolled jumped excitedly “A bath would be heavenly!” 

Inuyasha couldn’t help the smile that momentarily graced his features at how excited she got before he turned and stretched his arms above his head. “Do what you want, but I ain’t helping if you get caught!” he said over his shoulder. 

Kagome was about to tell him off but Sango laced her arm with Kagomes and started pulling her towards her stair well and their room. Sango looking back and having a silent conversation with Miroku, to which he just nodded and smiled. 

“Come on, I bet I have some clothes that will fit perfect. I tried to save that dress you came in with, unfortunately the stains wouldn’t come out. I’m sorry, I don’t normally wash stuff like that... I’m out of practice.” she ducked her head in shame. 

“Oh, that’s okay!” Kagome patting the arm that was linked around hers “I wasn’t overly attached to it” giving Sango a reassuring smile. The two continued chatting while the ascended the stairs and disappeared up the stairs into Sango and Mirokus room. 

Back on the main floor the monk watched the two girls go and once the door to their room had closed, he turned his attention to his hanyo friend. “Well Inuyasha, I know you can be a bit rough around the edges but that was a little over the top than your normal personality.” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about monk...” Inuyasha sneered and moved to head to his room but Miroku caught his arm. 

“My friend, it's very clear to both Sango and I that something has you rattled, I could see that kick Sango landed coming from a mile away! You call us pack, you say I am your Beta, we will not push you but if there is something you need help with you know you can come to us.” 

Sighing Inuyasha rubbed his hands down his face “Fuck Miroku its nothing seriously, you’re as bad as your wife. Let it go a’ight?” 

Miroku nodded at his friend, but Inuyasha could tell there was something stewing around in that head of his. “Alright, Alright consider it dropped.” Miroku then smirked at the hanyo “So, Lady Kagome is quiet the beauty wouldn’t you say?” waggling his eye brows at Inuyasha. 

Inuyasha released a loud groan and smacked his hand to his face “If you wanna consider an idiot that has a knack for tryin ta get herself killed or sick that...” he grumbled behind his hand. 

“What was that Inuyasha?” Miroku asked innocently. 

“Fuck off Monk... I’m going to shower...” he deflated and stormed across the room then taking the stairs three at a time, he disappeared down the hallway to his room. 

*** 

He sat and watched the video footage Kagura had collected from the miserable attempt to secure more test subjects. Having watched it at least ten times it was abundantly clear that this girl was the one that he had been searching for to complete his task and finally get what he had been waiting years for. 

“And where is this girl now?” Naraku questioned Kagura who was standing on the other side of his large desk waiting for her next command her head lowered towards the ground. 

“We do not know my Lord. After the attack the others barely managed to make it out before the authorities moved in.” She paused “We believe the hanyo and his team took her with them but where we have not found yet.” 

“I want everything on this girl, EVERYTHING! Where she lives, what she eats, who her friends are! Do you understand me?” his voiced raised causing Kagura to shrink into herself. 

“Of course, my Lord, I have already started digging when Kanna brought me this footage. I have learned her name is Kagome Higurashi...” 

“Time is of the essence with this Kagura, I will not except failure this time. It was a twist of fate that brought this one to our attention, how is it she was never identified?” 

“The girl was never registered, from what I have found she never showed even the slightest promise of spiritual powers.” Kagura answered. 

“Interesting... One-hour and I want everything about her on my desk Kagura, and your time has already started!” He dismissed her with a wave of his hand. 

‘Someone was trying to hide you Kagome, but I have found you’ Naraku thought to himself a wicked smile stretching across his face as he paused the video that was looping again. He paused it and zoomed in to Kagomes face, she was standing defiantly holding her bow and arrow towards Bankotsu a slight breeze had caught her hair. ‘Yes, you will definitely be the one and I will enjoy every minute I have with you!’ he chuckled darkly he traced a finger slow along her face and body on the screen. ‘Finally...’ he thought to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for anyone who read the original this is the last chapter that I have rewritten Some was kept the same other parts are completely different. Going forward the chapters will be all new content! Thank you to all who have stuck with me for this story! You are greatly appreciated and I hope you continue to enjoy it! To my new readers welcome and I hope you too enjoy! 
> 
> Comments and Kudos give me wings <3
> 
> Cheers!

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters.


End file.
